Tabor

Tabor was founded in 1420 by the radical wing of the Hussite movement as a fortified community on a promontory above the Luznice, and its street plan is unlike any other Czech town: the lanes twist, fork and dead-end deliberately, so that an attacker breaking through the walls would be lost and exposed, and the layout has never been regularised. Under it is a system of cellars on several levels, dug from the fifteenth century for storage and refuge and running to something like fourteen kilometres in total, of which a few hundred metres are open as a guided route. The Zizka square carries a Renaissance town hall, now the Hussite museum, a statue of Jan Zizka and a fountain. Kotnov tower and the Bechyne gate survive from the earlier castle. The town holds a large Hussite festival each September with re-enactment.

What you actually see

• A deliberately confusing plan - lanes twisted and forked as a defence.
• Cellars on several levels - about fourteen kilometres dug, a fraction open.
• The Hussite museum - in the Renaissance town hall on Zizka square.
• Kotnov tower - the surviving fragment of the earlier castle.

When to go

April to October; September for the festival. A day.

Honest expectations

The underground route is guided, timed and low in places. The museum labels assume some knowledge of the Hussite wars. Festival weekend fills the town. Cellars are cool - take a layer.

Nearby

Chynov cave is east; Bechyne and its chateau are south-west.