České Budějovice is a statutory city and the administrative and cultural metropolis of the South Bohemian Region. It is located in the České Budějovice basin at the confluence of the Vltava and Malše rivers, has a population of approximately 94,000 and houses a number of historical monuments and museums. For them and the proximity of other historically valuable places (Hluboká nad Vltavou, Český Krumlov, Zlatá Koruna, Vyšší Brod, Třeboň, etc.) are a frequent tourist destination. The city houses the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of České Budějovice. The historic city center was declared a city monument reserve on March 19, 1980.
The name of the town comes from the old settlement of Budivojovice. Over the ages, the pronunciation and transcription of the name fluctuated slightly (in the South Bohemian dialect it is called Budweis), the nickname Czech began to appear during the Hussite wars, originally equally in Czech and German (Böhmisch Budweis) and in a purely territorial sense. However, from the middle of the 18th century, when national tensions culminated and the name began to be taken from a national point of view, there was a differentiation: while Czech continued to use České Budějovice, the name was predominant among Budweis, ie Budweis. . This situation persisted despite the fact that in 1920 the Czechoslovak authorities declared České Budějovice and Böhmisch Budweis in German the official name of the town. During the Protectorate, on the other hand, the only official name was Budweis in German and Budějovice in Czech. The Latin name of the city is Budvicium.
Before the establishment of the city
On the territory of the
future city center, archaeologists have documented human presence as
early as 1800 to 1500 BC. In the early Middle Ages, there was a burial
ground on today's Piaristické náměstí, and probably also a housing
estate.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the settlement of
Budivojovice was founded, named after Budivoje from Železnice, a
courtier of the Czech king Přemysl Otakar I and the highest court judge.
Today, the last monuments of this original settlement can be found
behind the Družba department store.
Another important settlement
on the territory of today's Budějovice was Stradonice (roughly today's
Rožnov). They became a prosperous village thanks to the old trade route
from Linz. Stradonice belonged to the Vítkovs (Rožmberks), the most
powerful noble family in South Bohemia. There are indications that the
Vítkovs from the settlement wanted to build a city. But the royal power
did not like that at all. She felt that she needed her base in the south
of Bohemia and a counterbalance to the Vítkovci. Until then, this role
was only insufficiently fulfilled by the royal castle of Zvíkov and the
town of Písek.
Emergence
The city of České Budějovice was
founded by the Czech king Přemysl Otakar II. in 1265. The usually given
date of foundation is March 10 (the day the Dominicans took over the
plot to build the new monastery). The location and projection of the
city was carried out by the king's knight and Zvík burgrave Hirzo of
Klingenberg. A royal castle probably existed, or rather should have
existed, in the city for a short time.
Přemysl Otakar II. he
personally visited the construction site of the new town on June 11,
1265. Here he wrote the foundation document of the monastery in Melk and
entered "apud Budebins" in it. This is the first written record of the
name of the city. The city took this name from the original settlement
of Budivojovice, which the king exchanged with Budivoj's son Čéč for
Hluboka and Velešín.
For most of the time, the city fulfilled its
basic function, that is to suppress Vítkov influence in the south of
Bohemia, which was the reason for several hundred years of enmity
between the townspeople of Budějovice and the people of Vítkov, which
was suppressed only during the Hussite Wars by a common powerful enemy –
the Hussites. The people of Vítkov really bore the burden of the town's
founding. In 1278, they conquered it and set it on fire, under the
command of Ojíra from Lomnice. The next year another Vítkovec Záviš from
Falkenstein invaded it. Only King Wenceslas II eased the tension between
the throne and the Vítkov family. He gave the town its first and
hereditary mayor, he was the mintmaster Klaric. During his
administration, 4,000 people already lived in the city. It was inhabited
by both Czech and German speakers. The Klaric family were hereditary
magistrates until the 15th century. They were of Italian origin and
moved to Budějovice from Kutná Hora.
14th century
The
Luxembourg family, who took the Czech throne in 1310, had a very strong
relationship with the city. King John of Luxembourg visited Budějovice
in 1318 and 1336. His son Karel IV. he really liked Budějovice and made
it a frequent place for his diplomatic meetings. For example, he stayed
here for a whole month in the spring of 1351, and on that occasion he
granted the city important privileges (mile rights, fair rights,
exemption from tolls), which became the basis of the economic prosperity
of the local townspeople in the next few centuries. An interesting fact
is that during the entire stay, Karel was paralyzed, probably as a
result of an injury from the tournament, and was carried on a stretcher.
Karl's other significant stays in the city were in 1361 and 1364. During
the latter, he also affected the shape of the city. He was not satisfied
with the appearance of the Budejovice square and ordered the abolition
of meat and bread shops. The houses in the middle of the square also had
to be demolished and the king ordered the square to be paved. In total,
Karel was in the city six times. Along with Písek, it was the only South
Bohemian city he visited. The last time Charles IV stayed. in České
Budějovice in May 1378, half a year before his death. He was then
accompanied by the heir to the throne, son Václav, later King Václav IV.
In 2009, a unique fresco depicting Karl and Wenceslas was discovered in
a Dominican monastery. Even Wenceslas stayed in Budějovice for some time
after his coronation, in the summer of 1394. Here he was healing the
psychological scars caused by the recent capture by the rebellious
nobility. At that time, the Budějovič family showed great loyalty to
Václav and gathered a large army to liberate him. In the end, this did
not have to interfere, but a grateful Václav headed directly to
Budějovice from captivity. He stayed in them again in 1401.
15th
to 17th century
During and after the Hussite Wars, Budějovice
declined due to the disorderly conditions in the country, which diverted
trade routes away from them. The city remained Catholic. The Hussites
were not conquered, although in September and October 1420, Jan Žižka's
army from Táborit passed by it on their campaign against the Rosenbergs.
However, it did not attack.
The cruel fate of mayor Ondřej
Puklice from Vztuh proves that religious conflicts also ravaged
Budějovice. He took the side of King Jiří of Poděbrady of Kališnica,
which did not please the Catholics in the city, who attacked Puklic's
house on May 3, 1467 and murdered the burgomaster. In the 19th century,
his story was updated and there was an attempt to make Puklice a
national martyr, since he was Czech and the attackers were mainly
Germans.
In the years 1529-1531, the Land Assembly was held in Budějovice four
times in a row, which dealt with military and financial aid to the
emperor against the Turks. The Black Tower was built in 1547–1577. The
construction was initiated by Magistr Quirinus, who was the burgomaster
of the city in the years 1553-1575. Another provincial assembly, with
the same topic of discussion as in the past, was held here in 1614. This
time, King Matyáš lived in the city for a whole month, so much was he
worth for the money that the assembly was supposed to release. However,
he was also taken aback by the demands of the Protestant estates at the
Diet. He did not know how to deal with them, and the religious tension
in the country continued to grow, culminating in 1618 in the Czech
estate uprising against the ruling Habsburg family.
This also
ended the era of extraordinary prosperity of the city, which resulted
mainly from large-scale silver mining, income from brewing beer, trade
in salt, cloth and fish farming. Budějovičí did not join the uprising
and remained on the side of the emperor. They survived several sieges,
especially by the army of Jindřich Matyáš, Count of Thurn. Estate forces
were forced out of southern Bohemia after the Battle of Záblatí (June
10, 1619), in which the imperial troops of Karel Bonaventura Buquoy
triumphed. The Budejovices took advantage of the situation and forced
Buquoy, also with the help of bribes, to raze the nearby rebellious
Rudolfov, which was a great economic competitor of the Budejovices.
During the 1930s, thanks to the fighting of the Thirty Years' War in
central and northern Bohemia, Budějovice temporarily became - for 22
months - the capital, to which some important offices from Prague moved.
The crown jewels were also kept here. The crown of St. Wenceslas was
hidden in the church of St. Mikuláš, where it was guarded by Valdštejn's
soldiers and armed townspeople. Again the jewels were hidden in the
city, from the Swedes, in 1634-1635.
In July 1641, a fire broke
out in Budějovice and two-thirds of the city was reduced to ashes.
18th century
In the Baroque era, Budějovice acquired a number of
its landmarks. In 1724, a water tower with a reservoir was built to
supply the city with utility water. In 1727, Samson's fountain was
completed. In the years 1727–1730, it was located on the southwest
corner of Přemysl Otakar II Square. the town hall was built, a Baroque
reconstruction of two Gothic houses from the 15th century. It is the
work of the Austrian architect Anton Erhard Martinelli, who influenced
the form of the residences of South Bohemia in many other places as a
princely court builder in the service of the Schwarzenbergs.
A
typical baroque phenomenon was the veneration of the "classical" image
of the Virgin Mary of Budějovice, or the "Madonna of Budějovice". The
image from the monastery church of the Sacrifice of the Virgin Mary was
attributed miraculous power and made Budějovice a place of pilgrimage.
Copies of the painting, both painterly and sculptural, were placed in
dozens of places around the city. The owner of the Hlubok estate,
General Baltazar Marradas, was a great admirer of the Budějovice
Madonna. Sometimes the painting is also called the Budejovice palladium.
Budějovice experienced the occupation of the troops of the Bavarian
Elector Karl Albrecht during the First Silesian War and the fighting
between the Habsburg troops and the French army in the area between
Budějovice and Hluboka nad Vltava in 1742. During the Second Silesian
War, the Austrian and Prussian armies fought in the vicinity of
Budějovice, while the town was temporarily Prussians occupied.
In
1751, the former Bechyňský region was divided and Budějovice became the
seat of the region. The town also gained importance in 1785, when it
became the seat of the bishop of the newly established diocese of České
Budějovice.
19th century
During the Napoleonic Wars, the city
was occupied at the end of 1805 by the French army under the command of
Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. From December 1805 to January 1806, it
was occupied by the Bavarian army.
In 1803, it had 5,815
inhabitants, not much more than during the Przemysl times. However, in
the 19th century, the town gradually became an important center. The
construction of a railway connection, first a horse-drawn carriage to
the Austrian Linz in 1827, played a big role in this - the first railway
on the European mainland. Its builder was František Antonín Gerstner.
The line was extended to Gmünd in 1869 and to Vienna in 1871. The
railway was soon converted to steam. The railway connection to Prague
came in 1874.
The signal that the industrial revolution had
arrived in Budějovice was the opening of the Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth
factory in 1848. In 1850, the people of Budějovice elected the first
mayor, František Josef Klavík, an Old Bohemian and Tábor native (in
office 1850–1857 and 1861–1865).
A cholera epidemic in 1866 (286
deaths in the first four months) forced the city administration to build
sewage and water supply, but it was not until 1881–1882 that drinking
water distribution was built; until then drinking water was obtained
from wells.
In České Budějovice, especially in the second half of
the 19th century and in the 20th century, there used to be a strong
military garrison. A reminder is, for example, the Mariánská barracks.
On October 3, 1868, the first Czech grammar school was opened, later
renamed the Jan Valerián Jirsík Grammar School. In 1869, the local Sokol
was founded. The foundations of the collections of the South Bohemian
Museum were laid, the first exhibits were exhibited in the spring of
1877 in the house U tří koron next to the town hall. In 1895, leading
townspeople and industrialists, together with August Zátka, founded the
Český stock brewery (today the national enterprise Budějovický Budvar).
In 1908, a new train station was opened. The architect of the art
nouveau building was Gustav Kulhavý. In 1909, the operation of urban
public transport began - the electric tram began to run.
The
First Republic
The establishment of Czechoslovakia on October 28,
1918 in Budějovice took place without any problems, which was helped by
the Czechoslovak legionnaires and the Italian garrison in the city. It
was through Budějovice that the founder of the republic Tomáš Garrigue
Masaryk 20.–21. December 1918 (on December 17 he was still in Italy, in
Padua) he returned to his homeland. This fact is also evidenced by the
memorial plaque at the main station, where T.G. Masaryk spent the night
in the French railway carriage of his train from Friday to Saturday.
Masaryk and his entourage used 14 shiny cars as "new and democratic
means of transport" for transport from the station (and back) to the
newly named central square, where there was an official welcome with
speeches. The new mayor of Budějovice, August Zátka, also delivered a
greeting telegram from Prime Minister Karel Kramář to him on the square.
The surviving film footage is only from the České Budějovice railway
station, where the music of Otakar Jeremias and the Italian crew played
as a welcome, because a sudden snow shower on Friday, December 20, 1918,
made filming in the square and in the city impossible.
In the
summer of 1924, an action against the spread of rabies in the city,
which went down in history under the name of the cat massacre in České
Budějovice or the "cat affair", caused a great response in the domestic
and foreign press.
The building symbol of the first republic in
Budějovice is the new pawn shop at the Black Tower by architects Bohumil
Kněžek and Josef Václavík (1936), the radical functionalist department
store Brouk a Babko ("Broukárna") by architect Karel Chochola or the
church of St. Vojtěch architect Jaroslav Čermák (1939).
German
occupation and World War II
During the period of the First Republic,
the Czech population gained a decisive say in the city. This state of
affairs lasted until the occupation of the city by German Wehrmacht
units on March 15, 1939. The occupying administration then quickly
liquidated the Czech municipal government. The Budějovice council had to
cease operations already on March 17. Budejovice and Reich Germans
dominated the top posts in the city authorities.
During the
German occupation, there was an anti-Nazi resistance in České
Budějovice. Many České Budějovice resistance fighters (soldiers,
teachers, post office employees, railway workers and others) were
executed by the Nazis or interned in concentration camps. Hundreds of
České Budějovice Jews also perished in concentration camps.
At
the end of the Second World War in March 1945, Budějovice twice became
the target of American air raids, which greatly damaged the city and
caused great loss of life. In May, the German garrison cleared the city
without a fight and left it to Soviet troops; nevertheless, retreating
German troops shot several people in České Budějovice. České Budějovice
lay on the demarcation line, while the center of České Budějovice lay in
the Soviet zone. Although US Army units controlled large areas southwest
of České Budějovice, due to the demarcation line, US troops could not
enter the city. Their advanced units did reach today's Long Bridge, but
turned around there. The Red Army entered České Budějovice without a
fight on May 9, 1945 in the afternoon. It was the 86th Guards Rifle
Division of General Vasil Sokolovsky, which was part of the 2nd
Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky. The
following day, American and Soviet troops met on the square in
Budějovice for joint celebrations of the city's liberation and the end
of World War II in Europe.
After second World War
The post-war
displacement of Germans from České Budějovice affected about 7,500
people (approximately 16% of the population). In 1948, the pilots of the
newly established state of Israel trained at the airport near Plané, who
went straight from the training to the battles of the first Arab-Israeli
war. The communists, who gained a monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia
that year, only started hating the Jewish state later. The U Plané
Airport, exclusively military since the 1950s, made history once again -
it was here that Vladimír Remek, a native of České Budějovice, acquired
his pilot skills, who later, in 1978, became the first Czech cosmonaut
and the first non-American and non-Soviet citizen in space.
On
January 1, 1949, České Budějovice became the administrative center of
the newly established České Budějovice Region, during the next
administrative reform, on July 1, 1960, it became the center of the
South Bohemian Region.
During the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, České
Budějovice was occupied on the morning of August 22, 1968 by the Soviet
Army, which remained there until the beginning of November 1968. The
occupiers primarily tried to occupy the building of the Czechoslovak
Radio in Dukelská Street, but people hung a sign of the Maternal School
on it to they confused them, so the Soviet soldiers searched the
building for a long time in vain. Even after the occupation of the
building, radio broadcasters broadcast illegally from the South Bohemian
Theater. One Buděžičák, twenty-four-year-old Václav Baloun, was shot
dead by the occupiers.
Important buildings in the era of
socialism included the Experiment house from 1961[40], the Brussels
Perla apartment complex (arch. Bohumil Böhm, Jaroslav Škarda and Bohumil
Jarolím) from 1964, the Swimming Stadium from the workshop of architect
Bohumil Böhm, opened in 1971, the Museum of the revolutionary workers'
movement (now a scientific library) from 1975, a crematorium from
1979[43] or the Gomel Hotel (now Clarion Congress Hotel České
Budějovice), built in 1982.
The Velvet Revolution, which
overthrew the communist regime in 1989, was started by students and
actors of the South Bohemian Theater in Budějovice. On November 27, the
day of the general strike, Přemysl Otakar II square was filled. fifty
thousand demonstrators. The organizers of these events included future
well-known politicians: Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Vladimír
Špidla, Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Jiří Vlach or the
first mayor of Budějovice, Mojmír Prokop.
After 1989
In 1991,
Budějovice became a university town, when the University of South
Bohemia was founded. However, higher education had an older tradition in
the city, since 1948 a branch of the Faculty of Pedagogy of Charles
University in Prague (later an independent faculty) was operating here,
and a little later the Faculty of Operational Economics was established
(since 1960 a branch of the University of Life Sciences in Prague). It
was these two older higher education institutions that became the core
of the new university.
Since 2000, Budějovice has been the
capital of the new Budějovice Region, which was renamed the South
Bohemian Region in May 2001. In August 2002, Budějovice was hit by
massive floods, during which the Malše and Vltava flooded a large part
of the city, including the historic center, and caused significant
damage (see also List of natural disasters in České Budějovice).
The most significant buildings after 1989 include the extension of the
town hall (2000), the Igy shopping center (2004, 2017), the new bus
station (2007), the academic library (2010), the South Bohemian Science
and Technology Park (2014), the Máj Community Center (2014), the
addition The South Bohemian Science Library (2017), the Piano
administrative center (2018), the new buildings of the University of
South Bohemia, the Exhibition Center or additions to the Budejovice
Hospital. The bold project of the concert hall, usually called "Rejnok",
from the workshop of Jan Kaplický, was eventually cancelled.
České Budějovice is a frequent destination for tourists from Germany,
Austria, but also from Asia and other parts of the world. On the one
hand, they themselves have many valuable historical monuments, on the
other hand, they are the natural center of the tourist-attractive South
Bohemia region. Most of the monuments are in the city conservation area
in the historic center, in particular:
Přemysl Otakar II Square.
with the baroque Samson fountain and the town hall built between
1727–1730
The Baroque Cathedral of St. Nicholas and the Black Tower
The Chapel of the Lord's Anguish behind the cathedral
Piarist Square,
the adjacent Gothic Dominican monastery with the Church of the Sacrifice
of the Virgin Mary and the late Renaissance Solnice.
The Iron Maiden
and the Rabenstein Tower are defensive towers from the 14th century and
one of the few remains of the city's Gothic fortifications.
Other
monuments are, for example:
Church of St. John the Baptist and St.
Prokop from the beginning of the 13th century
Plague Hospital with
the Church of the Holy Trinity
Weather column
Position
České Budějovice is located at the confluence of the
Malše and Vltava rivers in the southeastern part of the České Budějovice
basin. It stretches north and northwest of the city and is rich in
ponds. The largest ponds in the city are Starohaklovský pond (44 ha),
Černiš (42 ha), Novohaklovský pond (41 ha), Starý vrbenský back pond (22
ha), Starý Houženský pond (21 ha), Domin (17 ha), Čertík (15 ha), New
Vrbenský pond (13 ha), Old Vrbenský front pond (13 ha), Bor (10 ha),
Dubský pond (10 ha). From the other directions, the České Budějovice
basin is clearly demarcated by terrain elevations in the relative
proximity of the city: the Lišovský threshold separates it from the
Třeboň basin in the northeast, the foothills of the Novohradské
mountains in the southeast and south, and the Šumava foothills in the
southwest and west, specifically the Blanský les with Kletí.
Climate
Budejovice's climate is slightly warm, humid and mildly cold.
The effect of the nearby Šumava and Novohradská mountains and weakly the
influence of the Alps is manifested, which causes hair dryer effects in
south and southeast winds (rain shadow and temperature increase), on the
other hand, the opposite effect occurs in north and northwest winds.
West and north-west winds blow here most often, the proportion of east
and south-east winds is also significant.
The location at the
bottom of a shallow, wide basin restricts airflow, which is evident
during winter inversions. The ponds in the vicinity cause frequent and
dense fogs, especially in the northwestern part of the city. Dense
buildings and wide concrete or paved areas generally cause lower wind
speeds and higher temperatures in the city center (compared to city
outskirts).
The long-term annual average temperature (for the
period 1886–2004) is 8.1 °C, the lowest measured air temperature -42.2
°C (February 11, 1929 in Litvínovice, about 1 km from Budějovice), the
highest 37.8 °C ( 27 July 1983). In the city, it freezes on average 111
days a year, all-day frost lasts on average 31 days a year. There are
six tropical days per year on average. The long-term average annual
rainfall is 623 mm, most of which falls in summer. The record daily
amount of precipitation comes from August 25, 1925 (127.7 mm), the
monthly from the flood of August 2002 (403.5 mm).
Floods
The
location in a shallow basin at the confluence of two large rivers
exposes České Budějovice to a considerable risk of flooding. Dobrovodský
potok and Malše were the most frequently flooded. Local rains also often
cause problems in the northwestern part of the city (especially in the
vicinity of Branišovská Street), where, during heavy rainfall, the
sewage system does not have time to drain the water flowing from the
surrounding slightly higher fields, which also affects the campus of the
University of South Bohemia.
Numerous cases of large floods are
known from the chronicles, when water flooded the city center and caused
extensive damage to the city fortifications. In the first quarter of the
20th century, floods were limited by regulating water courses (Malše,
Vltava) or even by redirecting them (Dobrovodský potok). Despite this,
large floods occurred in January 1920, August 1925, March 1940 and July
1954. The risk of flooding from the Vltava decreased significantly at
the end of the 1950s, when the Lipno reservoir was built. The city was
hit by a 500-year flood in August 2002, the largest in the history of
České Budějovice (the water flow of the Malší and Vltavou rivers was ten
to fifteen times higher than the average and about half higher than the
extent of the subsequent floods of 1888 and 1890). Both the city center
and some of its other parts suffered during all these floods (the
Havlíček colony along Malš is particularly exposed).
Vrbenské rybníky nature reserve on the northwestern outskirts of the
city
Kaliště natural monument in the east of the city
Natural
monument Vrbenská tůň in the north of the city
Natural monument Tůně
u Špačků on the southern edge of the city on the banks of the Malš
Stromovka – park to the west-southwest of the city center (important
landscape feature)
Memorial trees (8 in total): two-lobed ginkgo in
the garden of the Piarist monastery, small-leaved linden by the swimming
stadium, two-lobed ginkgo in the grounds of Lanna boatyard, red-leaved
forest beech in Dukelská street, oaks at Špačků, at Nové Roudného and at
Starohaklovského rybník, and linden in Třebotovice.
park Na Sadech –
a park in the city center with a colony of field ravens