Týn nad Vltavou
The year 2019 marks 790 years since the first written mention of a place called Teyn in 1229. In the middle of the 13th century, a guard castle was built in Teyn by Bishop Tobias of Bechyně to protect the ford and trade routes.
An important family connected with the history of the town are the Čabelic family of Soutice, the pledge holders of the manor from the second half of the 15th century to 1600. In the Týn nad Vltavou City Museum, a curious authentic document is presented virtually: a letter to Petr Vok in which Prokop Čabelický apologises for his absence from an agreed meeting due to "shameful eating", i.e. excessive alcohol consumption.
The small, quiet, but very interesting historical centre of Týn is dominated by the building of the former castle, today's town museum, with one of the largest permanent exhibitions of Vltavotyn in the country, an exhibition of puppets and an interactive exhibition of the history of Vltavotyn. Other architecturally distinctive buildings include the Church of St. James, the town hall building or former town houses with flamboyant names such as U Zlatého sunce, Zlatá loď, U Modré hvězdy, etc.
The permanent exhibition of puppets in the original archbishop's castle recalls the tradition of the Kopecký family of puppeteers. The best-known representative, Matěj Kopecký, died in nearby Koloděj nad Lužnicí (now part of the town) in 1847 and is buried in the Vltavotýn cemetery. However, the exact location of the grave is unknown and is replaced by a memorial at the cemetery's St. Vitus Church, built by local theatre workers. The historic core of the town is a urban conservation area.
A permanent artillery training ground for the Austrian army was located near Týn nad Vltavou from the mid-18th century. The site is now dominated by a baroque sandstone sculpture commemorating the disaster that took place in the camp on 21 June 1753. Gunpowder ignited in the two artillery laboratories and the subsequent explosion killed more than eighty gunners and seriously injured over forty. According to local legend, the explosion was prepared as an assassination attempt on Empress Maria Theresa, who was to take part in military manoeuvres. The Empress did indeed visit the camp and nearby Týn nad Vltavou not long afterwards (6 August) and, according to unverified reports, had a monumental sculpture of the crucified Christ, St. John and the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows erected at the site of the disaster.
Above the town, a Semenec towers an eight-metre high lookout tower, near which you will find the Natural History Museum, especially for children, with the subtitle "A little bit different museum".
The Vltava River flowing through the town surprises every visitor with its monumentality and the breadth of its flow, which is bound by the Orlice Dam. It is, among other things, a reservoir of technological water for the nearby Temelín nuclear power plant, which is seen by the public as an almost traditional source of co-financing the cultural and social life of the city.
Additional information
Families and personalities
- Matěj Kopecký (1762-1847) - the patriarch of the famous family of puppeteers, which is recorded in the local registry. A monument to him was erected here by local amateur actors. In the museum you will also find the famous puppet of Zindulák Pošvejc, created by Josef Skupa's cousin and a precursor of Spejbl.
- Alfréd Radok (1914-1976) - founder of Laterna magika and Czech director, to whom a part of the exhibition in the museum is dedicated.
Our tip
The exhibition in the city museum includes a hologram of a rare Renaissance treasure, displayed only on rare occasions.
Do you know that...
...the volcanoes were formed by a huge eruption and possibly a meteorite collision with planet Earth 14.7 million years ago? The transfer of kinetic energy melted the underlying rocks and ejected them into the upper atmosphere, where they were vitrified and then solidified.
