Domazlice

The Chods were villagers of eleven settlements around Domazlice granted the duty of guarding the Bohemian border with Bavaria and, with it, privileges - freedom from serfdom, their own courts, the right to bear arms - held from the medieval period. When the Lomikar family tried to abolish them in the seventeenth century the Chods went to law and then to revolt; their leader Jan Sladky Kozina was hanged in 1695 and became a national figure through Alois Jirasek's novel Psohlavci. The Chod tradition of bagpipes, painted eggs, embroidery and dialect is still alive and the Chod festival each August is one of the larger folk events in the country. The town has a long arcaded square, a round church tower of the thirteenth century that leans noticeably and is climbable, and a castle holding the Chod museum.

History

A settlement at Domažlice is first mentioned in a deed of Duke Boleslaus II of 993; it existed because of the Bohemian-Bavarian border and the trade route to Regensburg. Near it King Ottokar II founded the walled royal town of Domažlice in 1265, with a royal castle, and the border with Bavaria was guarded by the Chods, free Slavic farmers who settled around the town. The town was pledged to Bavaria from 1331 until 1419, with interruptions, and in 1431 Prokop the Great defeated the crusading army of the Empire at the battle of Domažlice. In the 15th and 16th centuries it changed hands often, it declined after the Thirty Years' War, and it recovered only from 1770 with the textile industry. In the 19th century, as the westernmost Czech town by the Bavarian border, it became a centre of the Czech national revival (Wikipedia, Domažlice).

What's there

• A leaning round tower - thirteenth-century, climbable, over the arcaded square.
• The Chod tradition - bagpipes, embroidery and dialect still in use.
• The August Chod festival - one of the larger folk gatherings in the country.
• The Chod museum - in the castle, on the privileges and the revolt.

When to go

May to September; August for the festival. A day.

Things to know

Festival weekend fills the town and accommodation. The tower closes in bad weather. Museums shut on Mondays. Outside the festival the folk tradition is in the museum rather than the street.

Nearby

Cesky les is west; Horsovsky Tyn is north.

Key facts