Originally an old Slavic border-area settlement was colonised by the German population throughout the 13th century and given the name of De Donawitz. A pre-Christian tradition of grape cultivation under the Pavlov Hills has been confirmed by the discovery of a winegrower’s knife left there by a member of the Roman legions.  Grapevines were imported to the region by the ancient Romans during the reign of the Emperor Probus between 276 and 282 AD. The first of the younger vineyards in the environs of Dunajovice were established at the beginning of the 13th century. At that time, the settlement belonged to the monastery of Dolní Kounice, which monastery definitely rendered great service to the reputation of local grape cultivation. This industry became a source of wealth and played an important role in Dunajovice being officially promoted to the status of town in 1580. The annals have it that before the Thirty Years’ War, vineyards made up more than 22% of peasant lands. A curiosity of local grape cultivation was a viticulture law from 1685. Under this law, the death penalty was replaced by the pillory and the court held its sessions on Easter Monday. Nowadays, too, grapevines and wine cellars are as natural and inseparable a part of this town as the majestic heights of the Pálava Highlands. Endless lines of vineyards stretch over hillsides of calcareous rock to yield the fruits of the winegrowers' year-long labour when autumn comes. Dolní Dunajovice, with its more than three hundred registered winegrowers, is the largest wine settlement in the area. 430 hectares of registered vineyards are established in grape fields with names like Walnut Mountain, Under Sunny Hills, Pink Hill, Dunajovice Hill, Cow’s Mountain, Winter Height, Little Sunny Place, Over the Cellars, and so on. The most common varieties in this region are Welschriesling, Grüner Veltliner, Chardonnay, Müller Thurgau, Lemberger, Blauer Portigieser.      

The complex of cellars “U Cihelny” is located to the west of the hillsides of Dunajovice Hills. A colony with a panoramic view of the massif of the Pavlov Hills is composed of an upper and lower lane and three separate cellars to be found in the locality of an abandoned brickyard. Altogether there are 30 winegrowers' buildings in this location and their long, sloping necks lead to high, wide corridors deep in the underground. The cellars, whose total length amounts to about 40 metres, are preceded by vaulted underground pressing shops. Only a few vaulted aboveground cellars exist without pressing shops preserved, the few brick facades being ornamented mostly by white lime paint and finished with a triangular parapet. The fronts of the pressing shops are rich in decorations of various shapes, colours and materials. The aesthetic achievement of the pre-cellar parts is heightened by the combination of white and red bricks and highlighted door and window jambs. One of the most beautiful buildings in the top lane is the front of a cellar from 1907. The inventive rendering of the pre-cellar area with regard to colours and shapes is complemented by a woodcarving over the entrance to the underground portion. The fronts of other cellars in both lanes are usually of white limestone or plastered bricks ornamented with colourful lime paints. As in some other wine lanes, the cellars in Dolní Dunajovice have no numbers. From the viewpoint of civil engineering law, cellars are not buildings but mining pits. This characteristic feature of underground corridors is best shown in the renovation of the underground pressing shop of Mr Kalivoda. In the course of a large-scale repair of crumbling vaults, Mr Kalivoda made use of his mining experience and improved the two-hundred-year-old construction, bringing it to a state that made a great impression on the original owners, currently residing in Munich, when they visited the cellar. The ancient and picturesque look of the colony is disturbed by a few modern pressing shops; the greatest blot on the harmonic appearance of the lane being an oversized pressing works at the fringe of the lower lane and a follow-up tasting room belonging to the Mikrosvín company. Another colony, “Na Sklepech”, consists of about ten cellars of various ages. A typical element of these wine buildings is a middle bay, which is not only an impressive visual component, but also protects the cellar entrance. The old cellars are sheltered by a plastered pre-cellar area, while the new fronts of pressing shops are made of regular sandstone blocks, often in various colourful combinations. Other cellars in Dunajovice located at several places within the area of the settlement have been constructed as a natural part of winegrowers' houses. Three-hundred-year-old cellar corridors whose length exceeds 100 metres are there for your inspection when you visit the viticulture courtyard U Mlýnků.