The castle was built in the second half of the 14th century to guard the trade route from Olomouc to Loštice, though it is first mentioned in 1317. Vildenberk lords built a stone manor, and Kunštát lords added a rampart, bastions and a moat wall. The Haugwitz family began a palace on the eastern side in 1499. A fire in 1558 left it uninhabited. In 1696 a Teutonic Order grand master bought the barony.
Archduke Eugen, Grand Master from 1894 to 1923, commissioned a Romantic Neo-Gothic reconstruction from 1895 to 1910 by Georg von Hauberrisser. It added running water and central heating. The dominant tower has eight stories and is 190 feet (58 m) high, and the buildings form a horseshoe around it.
The Order was abolished in 1939, and the castle was confiscated and looted in the war. It became a national cultural monument in 1999.
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