Písek is a pleasant riverside town of 30,000 people not far from where the waters of the Otava River join the mighty Vltava below Zvíkov castle. It's far from being Bohemia's most intact historic town, but Písek does have some outstanding individual pieces of medieval architecture and many of the modern buildings that interrupt the streetscapes are interesting and attractive in their own right.
Písek is the Czech word for sand and the name refers to the gold-bearing flat-bottomed river that was the main source of the town's wealth. Thanks to finds of ceramic utensils, archaeologists believe gold was panned at Písek as far back as the bronze age, but the earliest written record is from 1336 in the time of King John of Luxembourg.
Predictably for South Bohemia it was John of Luxembourg's father-in-law, King Přemysl Otakar II, who was responsible for the founding of Písek. His builders constructed a castle, a defensive system of stone walls, a church, a monastery and a bridge across the Otava around the same time as they were fortifying Zvíkov, 18 km to the north.
Not all of their hard work survived the centuries, but the stone bridge has weathered seven centuries of wars and floods to remain modern Písek's most valuable and beautiful piece of historic architecture. Pre-dating Prague's Charles Bridge by a hundred years, Písek's simply named Stone Bridge (Kamenný most) is the oldest in the Czech lands and one of the oldest in Central Europe. It became a graphic symbol of the catastrophic floods of 2002 when it disappeared completely underwater.
The 2002 floods damaged historic cities and towns from Český Krumlov to Litoměřice and there were serious fears for Písek's stone bridge. When the bridge resurfaced most of the retaining walls had been washed away and the paving had been ruined but the core of the structure was largely intact.
When the flood waters receded, an underwater investigation showed angels, saints and most of the rock from the bridge walls lying on the river bed. Cranes were brought in to lift the historic stone to the bank where it could dry properly and be prepared for re-installation. The missing sections of the walls were replaced with the granite that most closely matched the original. The ceremonial reopening of the bridge was in May 2003, less than 12 months after the destructive floods.
Písek's other outstanding piece of medieval architecture, the Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, was far too high to be affected by the floods but it has also been recently reconstructed and its forecourt is now a lovely open space with interesting but unobtrusive sculptures, a preserved medieval well and the glass covered remains of a Celtic Oppidum from the 6th century.
The church tower has dominated the skyline of Písek since it was completed in 1489, but the bulbous baroque tip of the bell tower was built only at the beginning of the 19th century after the original was destroyed by a lightning strike. The clean white core of the church was built in the 1200's, modified in later centuries and returned to its original Gothic appearance in the 1880s.
The most interesting details of the church exterior are the stone carvings around the entrance, depicting the earthly Jagiellon kings and the city coat of arms beneath portraits of Matthew, John, Luke, Paul, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and a Latin inscription mentioning the builder of the tower and entreating “Defend we who love you Jesus, from our enemies”.
Backing up the Son of God in defence of the town were a system of stone walls and moats that encircled the old town. The staircases from the small plaza in front of the church lead down through the old stone walls and from there, Piseckeho Ul leads along the old walls to the semicircular bastions of the old Putim gate and the river, where a path follows the base of the stone fortifications along the river to the old bridge.
The white building that towers over the city walls just before the bridge is what is left of the castle. Extensively damaged by fire in 1510, the castle stood in ruins for years until gradually being replaced by new structures. The east wing was replaced by the baroque town hall in the mid 1700s and the north wing was turned into a brewery around the same time. The west wing is the best preserved part of the castle and now houses the award winning city museum. Even without looking at any of the exhibits (the gold panning one is especially good) it's worth the nominal price of entry into the museum just to see the old halls of the castle itself.
Further along the riverside path stands one of the interesting modern structures in Písek; Křižíkova elektrárna (Křižík's powerplant). He'd previously illuminated streets in other places, but when Engineer Křižík flipped the switch of his trial system on 23rd June 1887, Písek became the first town to be completely illuminated by electric lighting.
The dynamos of the original system were powered by a steam engine, but when Písek approved a permanent system they converted the waterwheels of an old mill and followed up their streetlighting milestone by creating the country's first hydroelectric power station.
František Křižík is often associated with Prague, and in the suburb Karlín where he had his workshops a major street and metro station both bear his name. Písek however is an appropriate location for his landmark achievement because he was born in South Bohemia (near Klatovy in 1847) and retained a strong connection with the region until passing away near Tábor in 1941.
The hydroelectric plant was converted to alternating current in 1926 and produced power for the town until 1986 when it had to be closed after falling into disrepair. It was refurbished and opened to the public in 1994, and a top-hatted Křižík still keeps an eye on things from high in the rafters.
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Monday, 9 November 2009
A peek at Písek
Friday, 6 November 2009
Friday, 30 October 2009
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
A trip to Třeboň
If you ask Czech people about visiting Třeboň often the first two things they will mention will be the local fishponds and that it's a spa town. The carp from the nearby ponds are certainly a local specialty worth trying but the spa is of no use to casual visitors. Treatments have to be booked weeks in advance, there's nothing interesting about the architecture and the spa patients add little if anything to the atmosphere and public life of the town.
Třeboň is as beautiful as any other small town in Bohemia and for foreign visitors the most attractive thing is not the fish or the spa, but the historic architecture of the compact old town. There's a lovely main square with a sprawling chateau complex at one end, a Neo-Gothic brewery complex that looks like a small castle and narrow cobblestoned back streets lined with colourfully painted two storey houses and the whole town is surrounded by either parkland or water.
At the highest point of the old town is a striking church with an unusual double nave. The church of St Giles was built in the late 1300's and became a popular model for churches in Bohemia and South Moravia for the cleanliness and simplicity of its architectural forms, clever lighting and high standard of craftsmanship. Three preserved altar panels painted by the otherwise unidentified Master of Třeboň similarly influenced the development of Central European painting.
Třeboň's main square is long and narrow; about four times as long as it is wide. At the eastern end a busy street swoops in from the side and leaves again through the old Gothic gate tower, but the rest of the square is a pedestrian zone. At the western end the buildings of the chateau hide behind two big trees and halfway along the southern side the 31metre high clock tower of the town hall dwarfs the two and three storey buildings around it. The other buildings around the edge of the square mostly house shops and other businesses and there at least half a dozen restaurants that set up outdoor seating areas in the warmer months.
The Třeboň chateau is a sprawling complex of connected and free-standing palaces separated by crunchy gravel courtyards. Originally a fortress and castle, the chateau was rebuilt by the lords of Rožmberk in the 16th century and added to by their successors, the Schwarzenbergs, in the 17th century.
The Rožmberks were a branch of the noble Vitkovice landowning dynasty, whose power and influence in South Bohemia rivalled or exceeded that of the Bohemian king, and in 1573 Vilem of Rožmberk was a candidate for the throne of Poland. After selling Český Krumlov to Emperor Rudolf II in 1601, the Rožmberks chose Třeboň as their main residential seat. Amongst other possessions they moved their family archive which, despite being partially looted by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War, remains one of the most extensive and valuable collections of documents from medieval Bohemia with documents dating back as far as 1184.
The last of the Rožmberks, Petr Vok, died heirless in 1611 and after the uncertainty following the Thirty Years War, the Schwarzenberg family emerged as owners of the Třeboň castle and estates, gaining thus their first possessions in the Czech lands. The chateau palaces are accessible to the public in two main parts; the renaissance palaces of the Rožmberks and the 19th century apartments of the Schwarzenbergs. Also within the chateau complex are two restaurants, a cafe and the grounds and parks are freely accessible for visitors to wander and explore at their own pace.
Just outside town and across the Svět pond is the other prominent historic site connected with the Schwarzenbergs. Their neo-Gothic family tomb was built in the 1870's to house the coffins of several generations of their ancestors. An essentially octagonal building surrounded by hedges, gravel paths and thick groves of mixed forest, the Schwarzenberg tomb is an impressive example of the precise 19th century neo-gothic style of architecture with its turrets, flourishes and decorative touches.
The upper floor is a chapel and beneath it down a short staircase is the crypt in which 26 coffins lie side by side. The walls and ceilings of both floors appear to be made of precisely fitted blocks of pale stone, but they're actually of fired brick covered with a decorative layer of carved and stamped plaster. The plaster used is a special cement-free mix that hasn't yet needed repair in the 130 years of its existence.
The detailed 40 minute guided tour of the Schwarzenberg tomb is something like a walk through the family's history, beginning with their roots in Bavaria, their arrival in Třeboň after the Thirty Years' War, and their long history of service at the Hapsburg imperial court in Vienna. The largest coffin in the crypt belongs to Felix Schwarzenberg, who was foreign minster of Austria-Hungary when he died in 1852. Apparently the size of the coffin has more to do with politics and prestige, because he was actually quite a small man.
In the 1940's the Schwarzenberg lands were confiscated by the Nazis and the family fled to exile in the United States. Shortly after returning to reclaim their ancestral lands, the Schwarzenbergs were dispossessed again, this time by the nationalisation policies of the new communist government. This time they went into exile in Austria, from where they actively supported Czechoslovakian political dissidents.
Some of their former possessions were returned to the family in the early 1990's after the fall of the communist regime, but the majority of it remained the property of the state. The Schwarzenberg tomb itself is Czech government property; only the coffins belong to the family. Like other major aristocratic landholdings, there are ongoing court cases involving the restitution of Schwarzenberg property and it seems likely that the tomb will be returned to the family eventually.
Walking back from the tomb toward Třeboň the path leads along the top of the Svět pond levee bank past a frightful statue of the Rožmberks' local governor, Jakub Krčín. This southern road into the old town is spanned by two stone gate towers about 50 metres apart. Between the two gates on one side are the two best fish restaurants in town and on the other is the local brewery.
The brewery produces Regent beer and was founded when the Schwarzenberg counts reconstructed the old Rožmberk armoury at the beginning of the 18th century. Tours of the brewery are available for groups of five people or more and there's a good beer hall on the premises. A meal of local fish washed down by a glass or two of unfiltered yeast beer is one of the more appetising regional specialties in the Czech lands. Try the carp fillet chips.
In late October or November every year, the fishponds around Třeboň are drained and the fish transferred to tanks until just before Christmas. The fish harvests (výlovy rybníků) are a cultural tradition that dates back centuries and the weekend celebrations usually feature live music and dance, beer, wine and other specialties to go along with all the fresh fish.
Třeboň's rich calendar of cultural events also includes the mushroom celebrations in September and the Festival of Animated Film in May which is, along with the Festival of Children's Films in Zlin and PIFPAF Olomouc, one of the best opportunities to see why Czech animation is so highly regarded across the world.
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