Pelhrimov

Pelhrimov is a small Renaissance town with an arcaded square, two surviving gate towers and a chateau, and it would be a pleasant stop and nothing more except for a decision taken in 1990: the town launched the Pelhrimovske rekordy, an annual festival of records and curiosities in the spirit of the Guinness book, and it has run every June since, with attempts staged in the square - the longest, heaviest, most numerous, most absurd - and it has become a fixture of the Czech summer. The Museum of Records and Curiosities occupies a gate tower and holds the accumulated objects and documentation, several floors of them, along with the world's largest of various things. It is knowingly silly and the town commits to it fully. The old town underneath is genuinely worth the walk, with sgraffito facades and a Gothic church.

History

The name comes from the personal name Pelhřim, in Latin Peregrinus, and legend says the town was founded around 1225 by Bishop Pelhřim of Vartenberk. The earliest settlement grew up near the Church of Saint Vitus in the first half of the 13th century; the town is first mentioned in 1289, when Vítek of Hluboká raided it, and in 1290 King Wenceslaus II allowed Bishop Tobiáš of Bechyně to renew and fortify it. Pelhřimov sided with the Hussites, and its position on the boundary between the domains of the Rosenbergs and the Lords of Kunštát made it the venue of the land diets of 1446-1450, attended by George of Poděbrady; silver mining near Křemešník helped it grow and crafts flourished. The Trčkas of Lípa acquired it in 1434 and sold it in 1550 to Adam Říčanský of Říčany, who built a castle against the town walls, and in 1572 the town bought its freedom; Rudolf II made it a royal town in 1596. Great fires in 1646 and 1766 destroyed most of the buildings, and the burgher houses were rebuilt in a uniform Renaissance-Baroque style. In the 19th century patriotic societies, a theatre and choirs were founded, the salt house of 1707 became the National House and today's theatre, and industry came in the form of brush-making, hosiery and farm implements; a neo-Gothic synagogue by Max Fleischer, built in 1890, was pulled down in 1967. The town is now home to the agency that keeps the database of Czech records, with its museum and annual festival of records and curiosities (Wikipedia, Pelhřimov).

The main sights

• A museum of records - several floors of objects in a medieval gate tower.
• A June record festival - attempts staged in the square each summer since 1990.
• An arcaded Renaissance square - with sgraffito facades and gate towers.
• A committed silliness - the town has built an identity on it.

When to go

May to September; the festival in June. A day.

Before you go

The record theme is knowingly absurd and not to everyone's taste. Festival weekend fills the town. The museum closes on Mondays outside summer. The old town alone is a couple of hours.

Nearby

Jihlava is thirty kilometres east; Tabor is west.

Key facts