In 1110 the Bishops of Olomouc were donated Kroměříž. In the 13th century one of them, Bruno of Schauenburg had a Gothic castle built at the place of a Slavic settlement. At the turn of 15th and 16th centuries the castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance residence with a four-wing building and a big tower. At the end of the Thirty Years War in 1643 the Swedish military forces devastated the chateau. On its place a grand Early Baroque Palace was constructed. Bishop Karl Lichtenstein called Italian imperial architects F. Luches and G.P. Tencalla from Vienna. They also participated in other constructions after the fire of the town under restoration. From the original castle remained the down part of the main tower, rebuilt into a grand 84m high tower. On the ground plan of the original castle was a three-floor building built, surrounding courtyards with arcades, pilasters and corner rizalites. Further architectural adjustments were realized after the fire in the chateau in 1752 and in the 19th century. In the revolutionary years 1848-1849 the session of the Reichstag was moved to this place from Vienna and in 1885 the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and the Russian tsar Alexander I met here.
Inside the chateau was realized the whole range of richly decorated interiors with excellent period equipment and collections and salla terena leading to the Under-Chateau Garden. The interiors served as representative, presenting art and historic collections and management of the bishopric. The chateau picture gallery concentrates master-pieces of European painters of the 15th-18th centuries, such as Tizian, Lucas Cranach senior, Hans von Aachen, Paolo Veronese, Jan Breughel senior. This collection is one of the most valuable ones in Bohemia. The Under-Chateau Garden was originated already in the Middle Ages, later it was adjusted to the Renaissance and Baroque style. In the 19th century it was changed into a romantic English park. The park is 64 hectares large and includes three artificial lakes and several romantic buildings, such as Pompeian and Colloredo Colonnades, a Chinese Pavilion and Max’s Courtyard. According to the model of Renaissance gardens the Flower Garden from the second half of the 17th century was designed. Its centre creates an octagonal, richly decorated rotunda and a monumental colonnade around it, which is 244m long. There follow the Lion Fountain, the Tritons´ Fountain, a square and a round maze. These gardens belong to the most significant sights of the garden architecture in Europe. Together with the chateau complex they are included in the UNESCO list of the world cultural and natural inheritage
