Lešná Castle

Lešná Castle sits inside the grounds of Zlín Zoo, in the Štípa district, making it one of the rare European residences you reach by walking through an animal park rather than a manicured driveway. The historicizing building from the late 19th century now doubles as both a heritage site and the visual anchor of one of Moravia's most visited attractions.

How did the Seilern family end up in Lešná?

The Seilern family had held land in the region since 1724, when they took over nearby Lukov Castle. That medieval stronghold gradually fell into disrepair, and by 1793 it was no longer habitable. Needing a comfortable residence befitting their status, the family turned their attention to Lešná, where a new seat was gradually built to replace the crumbling Lukov fortress.

When was the current building constructed?

The castle tourists visit today dates from a reconstruction carried out between 1887 and 1894, in the historicizing style favored by Central European aristocracy at the time. Rather than a single architectural idea, the building borrows decorative elements from earlier periods, a common approach for stately homes built or rebuilt around the turn of the 20th century.

Who turned the estate into a zoo?

The pivotal figure is Count Josef Karel Seilern (1883–1939), an ornithologist and traveler who reshaped the grounds around the castle into something beyond a private park. He founded a natural history museum on site and established a private zoological garden, assembling animals and specimens connected to his own scientific interests. That personal collection became the seed of what is now Zlín Zoo.

When did the zoo open to the public?

For as long as the estate belonged to the Seilerns, the menagerie remained a private undertaking tied to the count's own research. That changed in 1948, after the Second World War, when the zoological garden opened to the general public under the name ZOO Zlín. From that point on, the castle and its surrounding park stopped being an aristocratic private domain and became a destination anyone could visit.

What happened to the Seilern family?

The family's ownership of Lešná ended in 1945. Postwar political changes forced the Seilerns to relocate to Litschau in Austria, and their property was confiscated. Today the castle building itself belongs to the city of Zlín, while the castle's collections — the museum holdings that trace back to Count Seilern's own natural history project — are state property.

Where exactly is the castle located?

Lešná lies in Štípa, a part of the city of Zlín, inside the zoo complex (coordinates: 49.273285, 17.7178225). It is one of the few places in the Czech Republic where visiting a historic residence and walking past animal enclosures happen in the same stroll, with the castle serving as the natural landmark for the whole site.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a separate ticket for Lešná Castle? The castle stands within the Zlín Zoo grounds, so seeing it is part of a zoo visit rather than a separate paid attraction outside the park.

Who owns the castle today? The building belongs to the city of Zlín, while the museum collections housed inside it are owned by the Czech state.

Why is there a zoo around the castle? The zoo grew out of a private collection of animals and natural history specimens assembled by Count Josef Karel Seilern, an ornithologist and traveler who developed the grounds in the first half of the 20th century.

Since when has the zoo been open to everyone? The zoological garden opened to the public in 1948, once the estate had passed out of the Seilern family's private ownership.

What architectural style does the castle represent? The building's current form, completed between 1887 and 1894, follows the historicizing style typical of aristocratic residences in Central Europe during that period.