Libodřice offers a distinct cultural focus: Bauer’s Villa explores Cubist architecture and applied arts, while the Libodřický burial mound site, traces of a former fortress, and a chapel and wayside cross offer other perspectives. This contrast is especially useful when planning your trip. You can focus your stay on a remarkable work of the 20th century or turn your attention more to archaeological and historical evidence. Libodřice therefore offers a choice of different kinds of cultural heritage.
Cubist architecture at Bauer’s Villa
Bauer’s Villa was built between 1912 and 1914 to a design by architect Josef Gočár. It is a unique and stylistically distinctive work of Cubist architecture. This makes it interesting to travellers looking not just for a historic building, but for a striking example of a particular architectural style. Inside, an exhibition of Cubist furniture and applied arts is on display. The architecture and exhibition offer two related but distinct perspectives: the house as a work of art, and furniture and applied arts as fields of design. The villa reopened in July 2025. Check the visitor arrangements and current exhibition programme before your trip so you can plan your visit accordingly.
Burial mounds and the history of the fortress
The Libodřický burial mound site adds an archaeological perspective to the architectural focus. The archaeological heritage reserve comprises around 25 burial mounds with stone cores and surrounding stone rings. This specific construction method sets the site apart from the buildings in the village: the focus here is not on rooms or façades, but on the shape of the burial mounds. The castle in Libodřice was converted from a former fortress in 1750. As a former castle, it retains parts of the fortress’s enclosing walls, cellars and several vaulted rooms on the ground floor. The surviving structures illustrate the connection between the earlier fortress and its later conversion into a castle. The archaeological burial mounds are thus clearly distinct from the parts of a converted complex.
Chapel, wayside cross and bell tower
Other buildings also add their own distinctive touches. The Chapel of the Virgin Mary is located at the junction of the old road and the path to Břežany. The neo-Gothic niche chapel was built in 1887 by the Strnad family on the site of an older chapel. Its architectural form and location have two distinct points of reference: the niche chapel represents a particular architectural style, while its position at the crossroads marks a specific place. Behind Libodřice, at the fork in the path to the grove, stands a wayside shrine in the form of an iron cross on a stone pedestal. The wayside cross was funded by the Strnad family. The Libodřice bell tower is made of red sandstone and dates from before 1877. Together, these buildings illustrate different aspects of local architectural and place history.
Cultural heritage as the focus of your stay
The options offer a clear comparison for choosing a focus: the villa combines Cubist architecture with applied arts, the burial mound site represents archaeology, and the former castle illustrates the conversion of a fortress. You can therefore shape the cultural part of your stay around the topic that interests you most.
Discover more destinations: Lošany, Chotutice, Nová Ves-Ohrada, Polepy, Ohaře, Nebovidy, Konárovice, Tismice.
For the wider travel overview: Kolín District.
