Letohrádek Portz Insel
Castle · Czechia
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The cycling route between Mikulov and Valtice crosses a 95-metre, 15-arch brick bridge, for centuries the only way onto the island, to a fortified lodge that is now a working winery with a bistro. Cardinal František z Dietrichstein built the retreat around 1627 as a pleasure-house; the bridge was excavated and rebuilt in 2018–2020.
The pavilion stands in the Italian villa-in-a-fortress style Cardinal Dietrichstein favoured, its formal gardens, ice house and service wing once linked to it by an underground passage. In 1672 Emperor Leopold I brought his whole court across the bridge, hunted on the island, then spent an hour touring the pond by boat while court musicians played. A 1937 estate record notes a visit from Edward, the recently abdicated King Edward VIII, and Wallis Simpson, one of the last distinguished guests before the postwar border zone sealed the island off. When the Cibulka family's winery took the site over, its cellars had to be dug out from under collapsed stone before a single bottle could be stored there again. The gardens and much of the pond that once surrounded the island were never restored; a short interpretive trail now loops the site instead.
What you see
A two-story pavilion rises on its own raised, bastioned brick terrace at the bridge's end, reached by a symmetrical double-ramp stone staircase, the four corner bastions and squared terrace walls the last visible trace of the fortified island retreat.
Practical
Bistro Portz Insel runs Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00, from May through September; cellar wine tastings can be booked in advance.
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