Prachatice - a town on the Golden Trail
The historic town of Prachatice, also called "the gateway to the heart of Šumava" or "the pearl on the Golden Trail", was founded at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries.
The historic core of the town, which was declared a town conservation area in 1981, consists of a ring of double town walls (which were needed here because of frequent raids) and houses in the square and in the adjacent streets, which have retained their Renaissance appearance. The town was awarded the Historic Town of the Year award in 2002.
In 1382 Prachatice was granted the right of salt storage and since then other towns had to buy salt from them, which brought considerable wealth. It was not until the Habsburgs ordered the importation of salt from Austria that the famous Golden Trail came to a halt.But the town has long lived off the activities of the soumars (German: Säumers), or merchants working on the orders of the upper class, about whom you can learn in the interactive exhibition in the town museum. Thanks to the Golden Trail, Prachatice became one of the royal towns and flourished with its wealth and exhibition houses, many of which have been preserved in their original beauty. The square is decorated with a fountain with a statue of Justice and also a modern sculpture of an ancient bicycle.
The most important Renaissance monument is the Old Town Hall, decorated in the chiaroscuro technique. The paintings under the roof cornice depict eight human virtues: patience, prudence, love, justice, faith, hope, fortitude and temperance. The new town hall dates from 1903 and is decorated with an elongated sgraffito under the windows depicting a Soumar caravan on its way from Passau to Prachatice. The statue of the patron saint of Prachatice is placed in the house, the facade is also decorated with sculptures of a merchant and a lancknecht.
Since the Middle Ages, the so-called Golden Trail passed through the southern part of Bohemia and the Danube region, which had three basic branches: one through Prachatice, another through Vimperk and the third through Kašperské hory to Passau and then to Salzburg. It was an example of a communication that brought life to whole large areas of neighbouring medieval states: to the Bishopric of Passau and to the Kingdom of Bohemia. Not only goods flowed through it, but also the ideas and culture of the colonists who settled the inhospitable border region and breathed life into it.
Today, the interactive Golden Trail exhibition in Renaissance house No. 10 in Prachatický Museum, complete with engravings by Jaques Callot with themes of the hardships of the 30-year war, is worth a visit.
Additional information
Personalities:
- Jan Hus (1370-1415) - medieval reformer, Catholic clergyman and preacher, university rector, who went to school in Prachatice. He lived then in a small little world in the first floor of the house, which serves as the town library (today's Husova Street).
- Jan Nepomuk Neumann (1811-1860) - Prachatický native, who became the second American saint in 1977. He went on a missionary journey to the United States, building eighty churches and more than one hundred parochial schools in Baltimore; he is considered the founder of American Catholic education. In 1855, he also came to his hometown of Prachatice for a few days.
Our Tip
Climb the observation tower, which is part of the late Gothic church of St. James the Greater on Kostelní náměstí between Velký náměstí and Dolní (Písecká) Gate. The gate is open daily from June to September.
Do you know that...
...according to the legend, there is an imprint of the face of little Jan Hus in the rock just outside Husinec? When he was returning from school to Stary Prachatice, he used to sit under a rock in the valley of the Blanica River, where the Husinec dam lake spills today?
