Prachatice

Prachatice held the Bohemian end of the Golden Road, the medieval salt route from Passau over the Sumava, and for two centuries the salt trade made it one of the richest towns in southern Bohemia. The money went into the houses: the old town inside its walls has a dense group of Renaissance facades in sgraffito and painted decoration, with the Sitkovsky house and the old town hall carrying the most elaborate schemes - biblical scenes, allegories, hunting and heraldry across whole frontages. The town walls survive substantially with the Pisek gate. St James's church is a large late Gothic hall church. Jan Hus was schooled here as a boy. The salt trade ended when the route shifted in the seventeenth century and the town stopped growing, which is why so much of the sixteenth century is still standing. The Golden Road is now a marked walking route.

History

The name comes from the old Slavic personal name Prachata. Prachatice grew with the trade on the Golden Trail, the salt route from Passau: a settlement was founded probably in the 9th or 10th century at today's Staré Prachatice, the Vyšehrad Chapter acquired it in the second half of the 12th century, and a new settlement was laid out nearby at the end of the 13th. It is first called a town in 1312, in 1323 King John confirmed its right to use the route to Passau and collect customs, and it was completed in the third quarter of the 14th century. The Hussites attacked it twice and finally took it, and in 1436 King Sigismund made it a royal town; it passed briefly to the Rosenbergs in 1439 and again from 1501, and in the 16th century trade on the trail reached its peak and the town prospered. Peter Vok of Rosenberg, the last of his family, sold it in 1601 to Rudolf II, who made it a royal town again in 1609; after siding with the rebels in the Bohemian Revolt it was retaken in 1620, lost its royal status and passed to the Eggenbergs, and later in the Thirty Years' War the Swedes took it. Trade on the Golden Trail declined in the second half of the 17th century and never revived; from 1719 the Schwarzenbergs held the town, and old houses were neither rebuilt nor replaced (Wikipedia, Prachatice).

The main sights

• Sgraffito and painted facades - scenes and allegory across whole house fronts.
• Substantial town walls - with the Pisek gate standing.
• A late Gothic hall church - St James's, in the middle of the old town.
• The Golden Road - the salt route from Passau, now a marked trail.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Good to know

The old town is compact - half a day covers the walking. The museum closes on Mondays. Facades are best in raking light; flat overcast flattens the sgraffito badly.

Nearby

Husinec, Hus's birthplace, is nearby; the Sumava rises west.

Key facts