Policka

Policka was founded in 1265 as a royal town and its fourteenth-century wall survives essentially whole: about twelve hundred metres of circuit with nineteen bastions standing, one of the most complete medieval town walls in the country, running round a compact old town with an arcaded square and a baroque plague column. The tower of the church of St James holds a small flat where the sexton lived, and it was there, in a single room up a spiral stair, that Bohuslav Martinu was born in 1890 - his father was the tower keeper - and where he spent his first years, with the town below and the horizon visible from the window, which he wrote about later as forming his sense of space. The room is open. The Policka museum covers Martinu and the town's glass and textile history. The Zdarske vrchy and Toulovcovy mastale are nearby.

What you actually see

• A complete medieval wall - about 1,200 metres with nineteen bastions standing.
• Martinu's birth room - a flat in the church tower, up a spiral stair.
• An arcaded square - with a baroque plague column at the centre.
• A town museum - the composer, and the glass and textile trades.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The tower room is reached by a long narrow spiral stair and opens on limited hours. Museums close on Mondays. The town is small and quiet.

Nearby

Svojanov castle is south; Litomysl is north-west.