The château was preceded by a town castle, attested in sources in 1439. After the destruction of Landek Castle, when the centre of estate administration moved into the town at the end of the fifteenth century, the structure here was converted into a more modern château. This took place around the turn of the sixteenth century under Baltazar Vlček of Dobrá Zemice and, especially, under Bernard of Zvole (lord from 1518 to 1536) and his successors. The building then took the form of a storeyed, three-winged structure with Renaissance features. In the late sixteenth century, the north-eastern wing was given first-floor arcades on the courtyard side, and the tall stone clock tower was probably raised at that time as well. Although alterations continued in later centuries, the owners never aspired to give the residence a more ambitious architectural form, as shown by the absence of richer stonework and architectural detail.
A run of demolitions and ill-judged interventions, which stripped the château of the attributes of a noble residence, began in the nineteenth century. In 1808, Count August von Poser-Nädlitz had the tower pulled down and the stone fountain in the courtyard dismantled, and the arcades were probably walled up. After the manor farm on the Opava side of town burned down in July 1811, the then owner, Jan Miketta, had the Baroque part of the château (the south and west wings built around 1733) taken down and the material reused to rebuild the farm buildings. During the September Revolution of 1848, the townspeople looted the château. The Rothschilds then repaired it, but, apart from the staircase and the former arcaded gallery, no significant period alterations were made.
From the eighteenth century, the château no longer served as a residence, but as the administrative seat of the estate. It contained quarters for officials and other employees, while other rooms were let to a range of public institutions. Right up to the end of the twentieth century, it housed offices, a charitable home, a court, a public-security (police) department, and a vocational school. Only in 1999 did the town take over the building. After necessary refurbishment in 2002–2007, the château became home to some of the town’s cultural institutions (the Museum of the Hlučín Region, a primary art school, and the municipal library).
