HISTORY

Hradiště sv. Hypolita

A protected medieval hillfort site with archaeological remains from the Great Moravian period.

The rotunda came to light in 2021, when archaeologists digging under the church floor found a circular structure with an apse, about 13.5 metres across and dated to the mid-11th century, buried two metres down. Around it lay a dense cemetery whose graves later yielded a 13th-century gold cross beside older Great Moravian burials. Before any of that, the fortress here was Great Moravia's own, walled with a timber-and-clay rampart up to 7 metres high on a stone base. It was violently destroyed in the mid-10th century, after which Znojmo grew up across the stream and took over its role, leaving this hilltop to the church. King Vaclav I gave the site to the Knights of the Red Star in 1240, who founded a monastery and provostship that still holds the church today. The building standing now is 18th-century Baroque-Classical, raised after the Thirty Years' War over an earlier Gothic church that had itself replaced the rotunda.

From riders

What you'll see

The church and its monastery occupy a wooded promontory over 300 metres above the Dyje, cut off on every side but the northwest by the steep gorges of two tributary streams.

Practical

Open during daylight hours. Entry free.

Checked 13 August 2026

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