Discover Dačice: Castle, Museum and Nature

Dačice combines castle history, significant collections and varied trails along the Dyje. Here you can experience a restored tour route, discover historic art and choose between short walks, a 10 km riverside trail and nature trails.

Castles, Museum and Town History

The Dačice State Chateau was originally built as a Renaissance chateau for the Krajíř of Krajk family at the end of the 16th century. It acquired its present appearance through a Neoclassical reconstruction in the 1830s. The restored tour route authentically conveys the life of the nobility in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Starý zámek provides a different architectural accent: the Renaissance palace, built between 1572 and 1579, features decoration in the form of sgraffito rustication.

The Dačice Municipal Museum and Gallery hold around 30,000 exhibits, including approximately 1,700 paintings, drawings and graphic works. The collection also includes an extensive body of graphic works by Max Švabinský. The permanent exhibitions focus on the history and ethnography of the Dačicko region, the world’s first sugar cube, historical photographs and postcards of Dačice, and notable figures from Dačicko. Together with the Spolek přátel muzea in Dačicích, the museum also organizes talks and lectures as part of the so-called Museum Thursdays, as well as local-history walks and excursions.

In the tower of St. Lawrence Church, you can see a lapidarium and exhibition rooms, as well as enjoy a view of Dačice and the surrounding area.

Walks and Trails along the Dyje

The Dačice chateau park covers 10 hectares and includes a pond with an island. For a short walk, there is an approximately 10-minute route around the chapel; the longer walk around the pond takes about 25 minutes. The approximate times make it easier to fit a visit to the park into day plans of different lengths.

The Vydří Trail begins in Dačice at the road bridge over the Dyje. The 10 km green-marked route follows the river from mill to mill and includes nine stations with information boards. It ends in Staré Hobzí; from there, you can take a bus back to Dačice.

The nature attractions trail connects the natural monuments of Toužínské stráně, Moravská Dyje and Dubová stráň with other sites of considerable nature-conservation value. Information boards and, at selected stations, simple shelters with benches and tables supplement the trail. Toužínské stráně is a 3.07-hectare natural monument with drought-loving steppe plants, more than 600 butterfly species, and rare beetle and reptile species.

The Stezka hajného Kázka trail provides information about forest plants, fungi, trees, birds, mammals and insects, and offers interactive activities for children. It can be reached on foot or by bicycle. The excursion can be extended via part of the nature trail to Kostelní Vydří and back around the ponds; in total, it covers 7 km and takes about 2 hours on foot. This allows you to combine culture, short walks in the park and longer experiences in nature in Dačice.

More Places to Explore

If you would like to extend your search to other places, you can also visit Volfířov, Příbraz, Velký Ratmírov, Třeboň Ii, Drunče, Báňovice, Clunek and Pístina.

To the higher-level travel overview: Okres Jindřichův Hradec.