Purkarec Rafter Museum

The remembrance hall contains a collection of period items, tools and documents.

It features information panels about the Vltavan associations. The hall documents the work and way of life of the rafters and boatmen in the Vltava basin. It also presents informs about the hydropower plants of ČEZ, a.s.

The Museum is open every day between April and October, from 9 am to 5 pm.
Larger groups have to book in advance by dialing the phone numbers below or writing to the address below.

The Remembrance Hall of South Bohemian Timber Rafting was opened to the public in 1977, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Vltavan association. The Hall was built cooperatively in original house no. 33, owned by Mrs. Marie Šlechtová. The greatest part of the credit for building the Hall is to the eldest association member (from 1924), brother František Vondrášek – association secretary, forest worker, timber rafter with a raft manager’s license for journeys all the way to Hamburg, and a Purkarec ferryman. Mr. Vondrášek made the principal exhibits for the hall himself and described the raft and strand binding procedure in detail in his Vltavan Chronicle. The rafting exhibit was installed in the house until 1993. Mrs. Šlechtová legally claimed the house back in 1991, under Section 22 of Act No. 229/1991 Coll.

The rafting “remembrance hall” was reopened in 1995 in building no. 86, the local authority (National Committee) building since 1955. Necessary structural adjustments were made to the building. The Hall was expanded with informative exhibitions on other Vltavan associations from Prague, Davle and Štěchovice. The hall also contains information on ČEZ hydropower plants, the work of Povodí Vltavy in České Budějovice, and the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant.