It is said that near the end of the 14th century the Lords of Lipé had a stronghold built in Nové Město, and this was supposed to be the residence of Jindřich of Lipé and his son, the warden of Kroměříž Čeněk of Lipé. The existence of this stronghold is however unverified by any direct written sources.
In the 1590’s the Nové Město domain was gained by the powerful Vilém of Pernštejn. The Lords of Pernštejn would only visit the small town on rare occasions and did not have a representative in place, as all matters related to governing could be arranged via officials in Pernštejn Castle. In 1588 a part of the domain was sold to Vilém Dubský of Třebomyslice, who had most likely had dealings there a year before. An article in the contract is the first fragment of written evidence pertaining to the chateau. The Pernštejns had it built in the latter half of the 16th century following a change in administrative divisions, both as the residence of the newly appointed official and as an intermediate vault for collected taxes. The small renaissance chateau was transformed under Vilém Dubský’s ownership into one befitting of a noble’s residence, along with the construction of the adjacent farmstead, brewery and malt house.
After the Battle of White Mountain the confiscated holdings of Dubský were given to cardinal Francis of Dietrichstein, whose family crest was soon to be found depicted about the castle. The Cardinal’s brother Maxmillian later sold the estate to the Dietriechstein’s economic adviser Šimon Kratzer of Šensperk, the chateau thus becoming a more lavish residence, gaining a third wing in early baroque style. In the 1640’s the chateau was ransacked by advancing Swedish soldiers and its owner shot dead. The heirs later sold the estate to count Ferdinand of Dietrichstein. The value of the estate roughly corresponded to the debt that the Dietrichstein family owed to the Noblewomen’s Foundation Institute in Brno. In 1699 Leopold of Dietrichstein therefore bestowed ownership of the castle on the aforementioned institute, thereby liquidating his debt.
The Chateau then became a distant and seldom used summer residence for the Superiors of their guests. Primarily however, it was used by the administrator , and other personnel of the Institute.
It is uknown to what extent the chateau suffered in the great fire of the town in 1723, but considering that the Superior of Anna Konstancie Žalkovská of Žalkovice, the widower Miniati di Campoli, had the chateau significantly altered in the following years, it can be assumed that the chateau did suffer at least some damage, but there is no direct evidence of this. The baroque reconstruction mainly concerned the western entrance wing, including the construction a private chapel. The ground floor of the side wing also gained an arcade corridor. In 1874 there were significant changes to the building in classicist style. The Superior authorized the construction of a column hall, a pavillion in the chateau gardens and the roof was slated, altogether leaving the estate in a similliar shape to how it can be seen today. The three winged one storey building of the chateau has the overhead shape of a wide U, complemented by the farmstead and administrative buildings in the immediate vicinity.
Due to the nature of it’s purposes, the chateau has never been overly lavish in its furnishings. It stayed in the keeping of the Institute from 1699 until its nationalization after the Second World War. Since 1964 it has been home to Horácká Gallery.
Nové Město na Moravě, Lucie Marková,vyd. Havlíčkův Brod, ISBN:978-80-904192-1-6