Pribor

Sigmund Freud was born in Pribor on 6 May 1856 in a rented room above a locksmith's workshop, and the family left for Vienna when he was three; he came back once, at sixteen, and wrote later that the happy child of Freiberg was his first identity and that these years produced impressions he never lost. The house on Zamecnicka street was restored and opened as a memorial in 2006 for the hundred and fiftieth anniversary, with an exhibition on the birth, the family and the town as it was, though there are no original furnishings - what is there is documentary. The town itself has a long arcaded square, a Piarist college and church, and a museum with local collections. Pribor is small and quiet and the Freud connection is the reason most non-Czech visitors come; it is honest about the thinness of the material.

History

It is not certain whether the Czech name Příbor or the German name Freiberg came first: the Czech probably meant "at a pine forest", the German, first recorded as Vriburch, a free castle. Count Frank von Hückeswagen founded the town in 1251, as confirmed that year in a deed of the Moravian margrave Ottokar II, and laid out its square on an old trade route to Poland; he built a solid castle, and his descendants held the town until 1359, when it passed to the bishops of Olomouc, among whom Franz von Dietrichstein granted it many privileges. The town burned three times during the Thirty Years' War, worst of all when the Swedish army invaded in 1643, and recovered in the second half of the 17th century. A Piarist gymnasium founded in 1694 opened education to poorer pupils, and from 1875 a Czech teachers' institute made Příbor an important centre of education. The town is known as the birthplace of Sigmund Freud (Wikipedia, Příbor).

What you'll find

• The room he was born in - restored and opened as a memorial in 2006.
• A documentary exhibition - the family, the birth and the town as it then was.
• An arcaded square - with the Piarist college and church.
• Three years and one return visit - the whole of his connection to the place.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Practical notes

There are no original furnishings - the birthplace is documentary rather than atmospheric. Closed Mondays. The town is small; an hour or two covers everything.

Nearby

Stramberk and Koprivnice are south; Ostrava is north-east.

Key facts