The Schiele room
His studio furniture and papers — 1911 preserved, scandal and all.
Marco Almbauer — Public domain · Jirka Dl — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Palickap — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Palickap — CC BY-SA 4.0
The small town's biggest surprise: a capital-grade contemporary art centre in an old brewery — named for Vienna's Expressionist Egon Schiele, whose mother's town and refuge Krumlov was: he lived here in 1911 drawing its lanes and roofs in his nervous line until its conservatism expelled him (nudes drawn in the garden, that day's scandal). The permanent wing tells it: Schiele documents, his studio furniture, prints of his Krumlov works — the very townscapes you walk, seen through his twisted, tense eye. The great spaces hold serious temporary shows: international names rotating over three floors of factory timber and hoists. The gentle irony: the town that expelled the painter now lives on him in name and visitors — the centre its elegant, belated apology.
His studio furniture and papers — 1911 preserved, scandal and all.
Three floors of timber and hoists — the building half the show.
Široká 71, 381 01 Český Krumlov
Church of St VitusThe town's second tower: Gothic St Vitus (finished 1439) answers the castle towe3 minutes walk4.8
Cesky Krumlov CastleCzechia's second-largest castle after Prague's — above a town of mere thousands:3 minutes walk4.7
The Regional MuseumThe town's memory in a 1652 Jesuit college: the Regional Museum at Horní street'4 minutes walk4.7
Latrán QuarterThe castle's town beneath its walls: Latrán is the servants' and craftsmen's ban5 minutes walk4.7
The Minorite Monastery and its GardenA monastic complex in Český Krumlov's old town, founded in 1350 and holding thre6 minutes walk4.9He rented a garden house drawing nude models and town adolescents; the small conservative town erupted and his departure was demanded within months of 1911 — he wrote his bitterness and painted his famous Dead Town series. A century on: the centre bears his name and the town markets itself by him — history laughing late.
The holding is documentary and prints chiefly, with limited rotating originals — his majors live in Vienna (Leopold, Albertina). The value here is place over treasure: his story in his town, the scenes that bred the series — the temporary shows compensating in the contemporary.