Czech Open Information Project
CESKE BUDEJOVICE
The beginnings of the Royal Town of Ceske‚ Bdejovice are connected with the
attempt
made by Otakar II to limit the expansion of the Vitkovec family further into
the interior
and to bring the royal power closer to the frontier. The town was founded
before 1265 in
a smooth hollow not far from the confluence of the Vltava and the Malse.
The
magnanimity with which it was founded can be judged from the vast and
perfectly
regular central square, which had no equal in thirteenth century central Europe.
The
settlement of the town was supervised by the burgrave Hirzo of Zvikov, also known
as
the builder of the monastery of Zlata koruna (the Golden Crown) and castle of
Zvikov.
The lay-out of the town and its streets had to take account of complex natural
features
-
marshy ground and many streams. The outcome was a chequered plan of housing
blocks
surrounding the main square and a main street directed towards the city gates,
with
commercial side-streets running off it. After Otakar II's death the town was
twice
plundered by the Vitkovec family. Under the rule of Vaclav II it developed
further
and
obtained from him more extensive privileges. It was surrounded by powerful
fortifications which took advantage of the many water streams and led to
widening the
so-called Mill-Stream. Beside secular buildings many churches arose in the town,
both
parish and conventual. Of these the Dominican monastery was among the most
imposing, boasting a foundation charter dated 1265. Its buildings underwent
complicated developments. Worthy of note is the lofty, elegant sanctuary of the
church of
the Sacrifice of the Virgin which has consoles shaped like human heads,
important
examples of 14th c. Czech sculpture. The construction of the monastery went on
into the
14th c., when conventual buildings and a cloister were added to the church.
The building
of the parish church of St. Nicholas was also begun in the 13th c., alterations
were
made in the 15th and two hundred years later the building achieved the appearance
we
know today. It became a cathedral in 1784 when Budejovice was raised to a
bishopric.
Not far from the church there rises the lofty so-called Black Tower, a
characteristic
landmark. The rate of development of Budejovice did not slacken in the
14th c. since it
had the favour of Charles IV and Vaclav IV. During the Hussite wars the
town adhered
to the Catholic camp. Numerous fortified walls and bastions date from that
troubled
period, e. g. the Rabstejn Tower. In the second half of the 15th c. an old
dream of the
Rozmberk family was fulfilled, if only for a short time, when they received
the town of
Budejovice as a pledge from Jiri of Podebrady. But the citizens never allowed
the
Rozmberks to enter their walls. At the time of the 1547 uprising the
townsfolk kept
faith with the king, which won them further privileges (the silver mines of
Rudolfov),
and brought new economic advance. In the 16th c. the economic life of the
town caused
new buildings to be undertaken, the meat shops and the salt house are examples.
The
Thirty Years' War meant a decline in trade and prosperity, which only began to
revive
after 1824 when Budejovice was linked to the town of Linz in Austria by first a
horse-
drawn and later a steam train. The main town square acquired its present
characteristic
aspect in the 18th c. when the arcaded passages and the richly adorned
facades of the
burghers' houses appeared. Antonio E. Martinelli gave the town hall its
baroque aspect
and the Samson fountain which adorns the centre of the square was carved by
J.
Dietrich and Z. Horn to the designs of F. Baugut and J. Rapp. As with other
Czech
towns the precondition for 19th c. rebuilding was the pulling down of the
fortifications.
New districts and industrial concerns arose around the historic town centre,
and in the
second half of the 19th c. Ceske‚ Bdejovice became the administrative, cultural
and
economic centre of South Bohemia. It was declared a National Heritage
Reservation in
1980.
