Thursday Oct 6
Cesky Krumlov is a jewel…somewhat undiscovered so far. That is bound to change. To understand this town, a bit of history is needed. I think my compilation of history here is fairly correct, though pulled out of various things I have read the last 6 months. The Hapsburg empire owned and ruled this portion of Europe for hundreds of years. This is the so called “Sudentenland.” The area spoke German mainly with other ethnic groups rolled in and was as much Germanic as Germany and Austria. After World War I, this area was lumped together with Slovakia and held to be a separate state, removed from German control; it was still, however, Germanic in many ways. The Munich Accords of 1938 gave Germany control of this area again. That’s when Chamberlain returned to England claiming he had arranged “Peace for our time” … yeah, right. At that time, Germany forced all Czechs, Romanys, and Slovaks in the area (25% of the population) to leave; it became a purely Germanic state. Many of those forced to leave did not survive the war, whether due to their ethnicity, placement in concentration camps as resistance fighters, or their death due to other collateral damage related to WWII 10 out of 700 Jewish people from the area survived. The town of C.Krumlov was not damaged during the war, never a focus of any battles. In 1945, when Germany lost the war, the powers that be decided the Germans, Austrians, and Czechs could never get along, so all of German heritage were expelled, as had been the Czechs earlier (the remaining 75% of the population). C. Krumlov was left a ghost town. The communists relocated some troops here, but in 1993 when the communist system failed, the Czech and Russian troops returned to their home states and this area was left with minimal population … without its people a town has no life or history. In order to repopulate the area, local tenants who had been forced to live here were offered the right to buy buildings and homes for 10% of their value, provided they secured financing to repair the homes within 5 years and completed renovations within 15 years. Some other people whose family were originally from here but had been forced to relocate by the communists also came back. As of 2010, the changes to the town are indescribable and almost complete. Even 5 years ago, the neglected buildings and streets looked impossible to repair. Now, the town is a wonder of gothic, renaissance and baroque buildings with a plethora of cobblestone streets, history lessons, inexpensive restaurants and bed and breakfasts. We landed in a tour of the old town with Karolina Kortusova, a Rick Steves recommendation, and heard not only about the history of the town repair, but she shared her personal experiences of growing up Czech in a Russian cage. They are now quite rightfully proud of the town, which they have made their own, and their new found freedoms, with all the potential and responsibility that comes with freedom.
On to the town itself. It is really two towns nestled into adjacent curves of the river. In one medieval town, a castle rose and housed the gentry of the area who had a license to make a special beer sold only to the rich. The castle has 5 courtyards, brown bears in the moat (really) more than 40 buildings and a huge garden. In the other medieval town, they made better beer. Hence the two towns were joined so each could profit from the different beers. There were more than 5 breweries in this tiny area. After the war and relocations, only one continued to operate … Eggerbeer. Even I liked their dark sweet beer…shock! The two towns cover a very small area with every street only a few minutes walk from each other. Hand crafts, and especially wood working, are now the major items available for sale. Before too many years, it will likely become a Disneyland of kitsch. At the moment , though, it is truly a marvelous place. Come see it now.
Time for a post prandial dumpling nod…heavier and deeper than other such post lunch naps…