The chartered town of České Budějovice

Municipal coat of arms

Flag of the city

Cadastral area: 55,56 km²
Number of inhabitants: 96 132 (2008)
Geographic latitude: 48° 58' 29"
Geographic longitude: 14° 28' 29"

Municipality of the city of České Budějovice:
nám. Přemysla Otakara II. č. 1, 2
370 92 České Budějovice
tel.: +420 386 801 804
fax: +420 386 801 850
e-mail: posta@c-budejovice.cz
www.c-budejovice.cz

České Budějovice is an administrative, economic and cultural centre of southern Bohemia. The town, with a hundred thousand inhabitants, lying in the České Budějovice basin serves as a base for regional authorities, the University of South Bohemia established in 1990 and a number of secondary schools. Local engineering and food industries are very famous, especially production of beer, office aids and school items. It is also the seat of a bishop and there are many scientific institutes there, as well as the South Bohemian Theatre or the chamber philharmonic orchestra. You can also see a planetarium, gallery, library or observatory on nearby Kleť Mountain.

History of České Budějovice

The beginnings of České Budějovice can be traced back to almost seven and a half centuries ago. Ottokar II of Bohemia bought from Čéč of Budivojice villages situated northward from the future town as well as lands at the confluence of the Vltava and Malše rivers and established a town there in 1265. It was intended to support the king’s power against the South Bohemia noble stock of the Vítkovci. Building lines used to marked even then and the Zvikov burgrave, a knight called Hirzo in German and Hyrš or Hyř in Czech was charged with the job. They started building at a swampy area rutted with many branches of both the rivers.

The locator Hirzo first paid attention to the Dominican Monastery with the Presentation of the Virgin Mary Church and the parish church with a cemetery on the site of the current St. Nicolas’ Cathedral. The layout of blocks, spaces and streets marked by Hirzo has survived without substantial changes to this day. The centre is a large square with a regular network of mutually perpendicular streets dividing the buildings into a sort of chessboard. Building lots for row, narrow and long houses were marked out within the blocks. Immediately after the establishment of the town, a ring of ramparts with gates and towers started to grow. The surviving Rabnštejn tower comes from the High Middle Ages. The Black Tower, a dominant feature of the historical core, is popular mainly for the view of the near square; it was built in the 16th century. The original Renaissance town hall reconstructed in the baroque style in the 18th century comes from the same time. The magnificent town hall building dominating the main square is probably the most beautiful baroque structure in our country. The pillory at the square in front of the town hall was replaced by a fountain, called after Samson from the Old Testament, in the 18th century. Its water reservoir – 17 metres in diameter – is one of the largest in Bohemia. When the shell was transported to the square in 1721 the Svinenská Gate had to be extended. The Chapel of Christ’s Mortal Anguish neighbouring St. Nicholas’ Cathedral is a smaller building. Originally it enclosed Stations of the Cross built in the outside wall of the cemetery. Nowadays, however, we cannot see either the wall or graves any more. Budějovice became the seat of the bishop and the region in the second part of the 18th century.

The establishment of the horse railway from České Budějovice to Linz in Austria supported the development of local industry. Horse drawn carriages started to go along the whole route in August 1832. The horse railway started in Budějovice at the station, where only a small station house remained, which is used as a museum stand now. The Empire style theatre was also built in the 19th century and Josef Kajetán Tyl played there for the last time in 1856. Two of the most famous natives – businessman Vojtěch Lanna and artist and writer Vlastimil Rada – were born in Budějovice in the 19th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a neo-Renaissance museum was built where visitors can see scientific, historic and ethnographic collections and regular exhibitions are organized there. A stadium with a gym, hydro-electric power station and a swimming pool were built in the town in the 20th century.

Legends of the City of České Budějovice

There are interesting places about which numerous legends are told in the South Bohemian metropolis. In the Ottokar II square you can see a stone near the Samson fountain that is quite different from the neighbouring pavement. It is round and marked with a carved out cross. It is called an erratic boulder as, as the legend says, he who steps over it after 9 p.m. will lose his/her way until the morning. It also symbolizes the “straying” of a rope maker’s journeyman called Filip who joined conspirators preparing the uprising against the king in the reign of George of Poděbrady. A town watchman, the father of Filip’s girlfriend Markéta, got to know, however, about the conspiracy. After it was given away, nine people including Filip were executed right at the site where you can see the unusual stone.

There are many legends about the Presentation of the Virgin Mary Church in the Piarist square. A copy of a picture of the Virgin Mary, which was brought from Italy in 1410 and installed in the church eight years later, is placed on its altar They say that the Virgin Mary saved Budějovice from the Swedes and plague, among other miracles. Another legend is related to the stone gargoyles – a frog and a dragon. One version says that they are coming up from the wall, according to another one they, on the contrary, are going into it. In both the cases, when they finish their movement the end of the world will come.

They also say that three roughly hewn masks on the eastern façade of the armoury called Solnice situated opposite the neighbouring entrance to the church show burglars. They allegedly broke into the cathedral and caught nun Aloisie and forced her to tell them where the monastery gold was. Brave Lojzička, however, outwitted them as she showed them cups and crosses made of fool’s gold in the sacristy, which she then locked from outside and kicked up a racket.

The Iron Maiden tower is one of the few surviving buildings of the town fortification, which used to be quite large. It was built in the bend of the city ramparts opposite the place where the River Malše runs into the Vltava branch. The iron maiden is, of course, also the name of a medieval execution tool. A legend says that Prokop of Dubné was executed in this way. He led a group to help the Zlatá Koruna cloister, which was endangered by the Hussites, but he wanted in fact to help Žižka. Soldiers overcame Prokop, and took him to “Budějice”, where he was after a quick trial put into a recess in the wall. The executioner pushed the lever and rims with sharp knives came out and embraced the poor devil. The continuous section of the medieval ramparts with the Iron Maiden and Ottokar bastion or Otakarka can be seen in the western part of the historical core between Biskupská Street and the former Dominican Monastery.

Cultural life in the City of České Budějovice

Nowadays cultural life in Budějovice is very rich. The city and different institutions organize regular events such as a carnival, Spring fairs, a witch rally, town hall summer activities and a block of Advent and Christmas programmes. Exhibitions and fairs are organized on the exhibition grounds every year including a Hobby Fair, Beer Festival, Antonín Fair, Země živitelka (Land – the Provider), Education and Craft, fashion show, Advent markets, etc..