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.

Highlights

• 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.

Before you go

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.