Slavonice

Slavonice prospered in the sixteenth century on the road from Prague to Vienna and the merchants built accordingly: two connected squares of tall gabled houses with vaulted interiors and facades covered in sgraffito - scraped two-layer plaster decoration in figures, biblical scenes, ornament and dates - to a density found in very few towns anywhere. Then the road moved, the town's wealth dried up and it stopped growing, with almost no new building for centuries. That is why the sixteenth-century fabric survived essentially untouched. Restoration since 1990 has been careful. Under the town runs a drainage and cellar system, partly walkable. The bunker line of the 1930s defences runs through the fields outside, several restored as museums.

History

The name comes from the personal name Slavoň. Slavonice was founded in the 12th century and is first mentioned in 1260, and the settlement grew from a market village into a fortified town; from the 13th century an underground system was dug beneath it, serving for drainage and defence, and in the 14th century the town extended west and east, to the two squares of today. Ponds were laid out around it at the end of the 15th century. Its greatest prosperity came in the 16th century, when it stood on the trade route from Prague to Vienna and gained its Renaissance look; when the route moved, its source of wealth dried up, which helped preserve its unique group of Renaissance houses. In the 1930s the town and surrounding countryside were lightly fortified, and some of the small bunkers have been repaired (Wikipedia, Slavonice).

What's there

• Sgraffito facades - figures, scenes and ornament on gabled Renaissance houses.
• Two connected squares - the sixteenth-century town largely as built.
• Preserved by stagnation - almost no new building after the trade road moved.
• Underground passages - the drainage and cellar system, partly walkable.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Practical notes

The underground route is guided, low and wet in places. The narrow-gauge railway runs a limited seasonal timetable. Services in town are modest. The bunkers need a car or a bike.

Nearby

Landstejn castle is west; Ceska Kanada surrounds the town.

Key facts