Konice Castle, Baroque château in Konice, Czech Republic

Konice Castle is a single-storey baroque building erected in 1705 by abbot Norbert Želecký of Počenice on the site of an older fortress. Above the stone portal of the entrance front sits a double window flanked by three windows on each side, and a sandstone statue of the abbot holding a monstrance and a palm. The four-winged courtyard has baroque arcades with cross vaults, open on the ground floor and glazed on the upper floor.

A fortress at Konice is first recorded in 1351, held by Ješek of Konice, and last mentioned in 1618; it probably vanished in the Thirty Years' War. In 1699 the Hradisko monastery near Olomouc bought the estate, and abbot Norbert Želecký of Počenice had a baroque summer residence built on the site in 1705 by builder Lukáš Glöckel. After the monastery was dissolved in 1784 the estate passed to the state religious fund; in 1825 Brno factory owner Karel Příza bought the run-down property and his descendants held it until 1945.

The castle houses the town's cultural centre and the only information centre in the Konice area. Its interior holds an exhibition of folk crafts, and the collection includes nearly 500 axes, the largest such collection in the country, entered in the Czech Book of Records.

The castle stands in the south-eastern part of Konice, about 21 km north-west of Prostějov, on the divide between the Zábřežská and Drahanská highlands. It now houses the town's cultural centre and the only information centre in the Konice area, so it is the place to ask about the building and the region.

The castle houses the largest collection of axes in the Czech Republic, nearly 500 pieces of various types, and the largest axe in the country stands in front of the building. Both are recorded in the Czech Book of Records.