Chov ovcí na hospodářských dvorech knížat lichnovských v Hradci nad Moravicí v I. pol.19. století

The aim of the text is to get acquainted with the unique breeding of Merino sheep in Austrian Silesia on the property of the princes of Lichnov. We attempted to grasp the chosen topic by studying the period literature and especially the documents of the Lichnov family archive, the Hradec Estate, including the cadastral funds deposited in the Provincial Archive of Opava. By the research we found out that Merino sheep of the mixed species of elektoralnegretti were, at the initiative of Prince Alois Lichnovsky and the efforts of the administrators Jan František Hilvety and Dedoviche, kept at three farm yards in Hradec nad Moravicí and its surroundings. The benefit of this work is putting the sheep breeding in Austrian Silesia into the context of sheep breeding in Prussian Silesia, Russia, Saxony and Australia. In the first third of the 19th century, the Merino sheep from Opava became a subject of considerable breeding and exhibiting interest, among others, of the Sheep Breeders’ Association in Prague.