Dacice

Sugar in the early nineteenth century came in hard loaves that had to be broken with tongs and a hammer, a job that took strength and occasionally cost fingers. At the Dacice refinery, the manager Jakub Krystof Rad was persuaded by his wife Juliana, who had cut herself, to find something better; he designed a press that produced small pressed cubes, made the first in 1841, and in January 1843 was granted a five-year privilege for the invention. The refinery is gone but the town marks it with a sugar-cube monument in the square, an exhibition in the museum and an annual sugar festival. Dacice also has a chateau with an Empire interior, an arcaded square and a Franciscan monastery. It is a small town and the sugar cube is the reason it appears in every Czech list of national inventions.

History

The name comes from a personal name, Dak or Dač. Dačice is first mentioned in 1183, as a settlement at a crossing of two trade routes, and it became a town in 1377. After the Krajíř of Krajek family acquired it in 1459 the town grew fast; in the 16th century they invited Italian architects and turned the Gothic town into a Renaissance one, with a new town hall, two castles, a new quarter round the castle and the church tower. A Franciscan monastery followed in 1660 and the church of St Anthony of Padua in 1672-1677. A plague in 1680 and several fires destroyed much of the Renaissance and Baroque town. In the 19th century Dačice was industrialised - the first sugar refinery in Moravia was founded here in 1833, and in 1841 Jakob Christof Rad invented the sugar cube here - and in 1902 a railway joined it to Telč and Slavonice (Wikipedia, Dačice).

Highlights

• The sugar cube's birthplace - first pressed at the local refinery in 1841.
• A cube monument - a stone block in the town square marking it.
• A chateau with Empire rooms - and an arcaded square around it.
• A museum exhibition - on Rad, the press and the refinery.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

The refinery no longer exists - the story is told in a museum room and a monument. The town is very small. Museum and chateau close on Mondays and keep short winter hours.

Nearby

Telc is fifteen kilometres north-east; Slavonice is south.

Key facts