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Kroměříž is situated at an altitude of 215 m on the river Morava (March) in southern Moravia. Already in the 9th/10th century it was the site of a castle erected by the Greater Moravian empire to protect a ford across the river. The old castle lost its importance when a new castle at Přerov (Prerau) was built by the Přemyslide kings of Bohemia. Kroměříž was granted the rights of a town around 1260 by the bishops (1588 prince bishops, 1777 archbishops) of Olomouc (Olmütz) who had chosen Kroměříž as a residence place. Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) Kroměříž was occupied and looted twice by Swedish troops. After the war, the bishops decided to rebuild Kroměříž as a residence town in early Baroque style. In 1870 the town became autonomous and thus had the same status as Brno (Brünn), Jihlava (Iglau), Olomouc (Olmütz) and Znojmo (Znaim).

The episcopal château [top] was created in early Baroque style in the late 17th century by the architects Filiberto Luchese and Giovanni Pietro Tencalla after the old Gothic and Renaissance castle had been destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. After a fire in 1752 the château was rebuilt. The château with its tower (68 m high) has become the landmark of Kroměříž. When the Constituent Assembly of the Austrian Nations had to flee from Vienna during the year of the Revolution of 1848, it met in the château of Kroměříž to discuss a new constitution for the Austrian empire. The assembly was dissolved, however, in 1849. In 1885, the château was the site of a meeting between Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Czar Alexander II. The château also houses one of the most important historical libraries of the Czech Republic and a famous music collection, both from the end of the 17th century.

The château gardens, originally created as a Baroque garden, were later redesigned to become a landscape park (64 hectares).
The so-called flower gardens were created in the late 17th century outside the town's fortifications in the style of Italian gardens on an area of 10 hectares with a gallery (244 m long) with statues of antique gods and heroes and a central fountain. A new entrance with a court of honour and two large greenhouses were added in the first half of the 19th century. In 1998, the château and the parks of Kroměříž were listed as a World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO (see also list of other UNESCO heritage sites).

The Baroque Trinity column [bottom right] was erected in 1725 to commemorate the Plague of 1715–1716.