Strakonice

Strakonice has three unlikely industries in its history. From 1812 the Furth and later Zenker works made fezzes here and exported them across the Ottoman world, at one point supplying a large share of the total market from a small Bohemian town. In the twentieth century the Ceska zbrojovka works, an arms factory, made bicycles and then motorcycles under the CZ name that were sold worldwide and dominated motocross in the 1960s. And the region is the home of the Czech bagpipe, the dudy - a bellows-blown pipe with a goat-head chanter - which is still played here and which the town celebrates with an international bagpipe festival every two years, one of the larger such gatherings in Europe. The castle by the Otava is a large complex with a Romanesque chapter house, a keep, and the museum holding the fez, motorcycle and bagpipe collections.

History

The name comes from the personal name Strakoň. The Bavor family built a moated castle on the Otava at the beginning of the 13th century, first mentioned in 1235; the village is first mentioned in 1243, when the Church of Saint Wenceslaus already stood and the Bavors gave part of the castle and several villages to the Knights Hospitaller, and by 1318 Strakonice was a town. By 1402 the Hospitallers owned the whole castle, town and estate. In 1420 Jan Žižka occupied the town but failed to take the castle, which in the 16th century was rebuilt as a residence for the Grand Priors of the order and lost its importance after the Thirty Years' War. The town industrialised in the 19th century, helped by the railway between České Budějovice and Plzeň built in the 1860s; fez-making here goes back to the 19th century, and the town became a centre of small arms and motorcycle manufacture. Its bagpipe tradition is tied to J. K. Tyl's play The Bagpiper of Strakonice, and it hosts the biennial International Bagpipe Festival (Wikipedia, Strakonice).

What's there

• Fezzes for the Ottoman world - made here from 1812 and exported widely.
• CZ motorcycles - the works that dominated motocross in the 1960s.
• Czech bagpipes - the dudy, with a festival every two years.
• A castle by the river - Romanesque chapter house, keep and the town museum.

When to go

May to September; the bagpipe festival in odd-numbered Augusts. A day.

Practical notes

The festival runs every second year - check the date. The museum sections keep varying hours and close on Mondays. The town is otherwise an ordinary industrial centre.

Nearby

Blatna water castle is north; the Sumava foothills rise west.

Key facts