Mikulov

The hilltop castle keeps a wooden wine cask of 1643 in its cellar. One barrel holds a hundred thousand litres, and you go down the steps to see the whole of it.

A pilgrimage route climbs the limestone peak past seven chapels. From the top the Austrian plain opens out beyond the border.

This was once the centre of Moravian Jewish life, and four thousand stones remain in the burial ground. The slope tilts them into uneven tiers.

The path follows a limestone spine where wild orchids grow in the dry grassland. There is little shade, so a summer walk at midday needs plenty of water.

Private cellar doors line the back lanes, and a few open at weekends. Inside is tight enough that five or six people fill it.

The square runs downhill with a plague column and a fountain at its middle. Arcades link the surrounding houses, so rain can be walked under.

The route passes an old checkpoint and carries on to a village in Austria. Controls are gone, so one signpost is all that marks the change of country.

A fifteenth century gun tower crowns the rise above town, and nobody agrees where its name came from. The inside is empty, and the openings frame the vineyards.

Twenty minutes away a palace, artificial lakes and a minaret share one park. The grounds are wide, so many move around by carriage or by boat.

A dirt track leaves the village and crosses the vineyards toward the ridge. During the September harvest tractors use it, and walkers step onto the verge.

A Baroque chateau once lived in by the Liechtensteins, part of the UNESCO cultural landscape it shares with Lednice. In its cellars the National Wine Salon presents and pours the 100 Czech wines chosen each year. Mikulov is close by train or bike.

A museum sunk into the ground over a camp of mammoth hunters. The Venus found at nearby Dolni Vestonice is among the oldest human figures made of fired clay. The original is kept in Brno; here you see a recreated dig and a replica.

A medieval ruin on the Palava ridge, also called the Maidens' Castle. Between its broken walls the Nove Mlyny reservoirs spread wide below. A short climb off the ridge trail reaches it.

St Anne's church, closing off the square, burned in 1784 and was rebuilt as the Dietrichstein family tomb. Behind its tall Baroque front, family coffins lie in rows. Every photo of Mikulov's square ends with this building.

A cave inside Turold, the limestone hill on the town's outskirts, where a guide leads you along tight passages. The rock was once sea floor, so the walls hold traces of fossil shells. Above it, paths cross grassland bright with wildflowers.

An old town above the Dyje valley, a short way west of Mikulov. The Romanesque Rotunda of St Catherine keeps wall paintings of Premyslid rulers, so visitors are let in briefly in small groups. Long tunnels run under the town, walked on tours.