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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.