Geography

Holasovice

Holasovice is located at the northern edge of the eastern crest of the Blansky Forest mountain range in the south of the Czech Republic, near the South Bohemian capital Ceske Budejovice. This city with 100,000 inhabitants is situated 150 km to the south from Prague and 60 km from the Austrian border. If you set out 18 km to the west of Ceske Budejovice, you can visit a well-known sight, the village Holasovice. This small village belongs to the municipality of Jankov that lies 2 km away in the direction of Ceske Budejovice.

Holasovice and UNESCO

Holasovice is one of the best preserved and most impressive monuments of the unique South Bohemian architecture of the second half of the 19 century. This is why some buildings of Holasovice were listed into the state register of cultural monuments as early as in 1960 and the laws of preservation of monuments applied to them. In 1995 Holasovice was declared a conservation area. The admission of Holasovice to the UNESCO List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1998 only confirmed the importance of this small South Bohemian vilage for the whole culturally advanced mankind.

Building style and its temporal determination

The second half of 19 century was the period in which the village face distinctly changed. Just then the Country Baroque penetrates to Holasovice, the building style that changed the separate farm buildings to the current state. It is a pity that neither construction plans nor drawings survived, from which the original face of Holasovice gables could be discovered.

One thing is certain, however: all the buildings around the village square (with two small exceptions) were built of stone already in the first quarter of 19 century. The Country Baroque came to Holasovice between 1840 and 1880.

History of Holasovice

The village of Holasovice is located at the northern edge of the eastern crest of the Blansky Forest mountain range, at the foot of the hill called Skalka, 494m above the sea level, 14.5km to the west of Ceske Budejovice.

The name of the village shows the fact that there the „Holasici“ took up the residence, i.e. people of Holas, the nobleman – founder. This happened in the period of so called inner colonization in the first half of 13 century. The exact date is not known. The first historical refence to Holasovice is from 1263, an important landmark in the life of the village was the year 1292 when it was donated, together with a few other villages in the neighbourhood, to the Cistercian monastery at Vyssi Brod by the Czech king Wenceslas II. It was in its tenancy until 1848, the year of corvée abolition in Bohemia.

In the course of centuries-old history, the village was hit by a succession of disasters. As a church property, it became the target of Hussite attacs during the Hussite wars. The greatest calamity struck Holasovice between 1520 and 1525, when a large plague epidemy was raging in the surroundings of Ceske Budejovice. Only two persons survived the epidemy in Holasovice. The place of mass funeral was at the northern edge of the village. To this day, a masonry plague column stands in that place. The Church manorial nobility tried to settle there new serfs from Cistercian possessions in Austria and Bavaria. That is why already about 1530 seventeen settlers were mentioned in the urbar of Vyssi Brod monastery and there are mostly German names. Gradually, the inhabitants mix with people from the Czech villages in neighbourhood so that by population census 63 persons from 211 inhabitants advocate the Czech nationality. In 1938, Holasovice and the surrounding villages were additionally included in the occupation. In 1945, a part of the citizens were evacuated and the vacated holdings were settled by people from surrounding villages. At the present time, 140 inhabitants live in the village.

The village square of Holasovice

The centre of Holasovice is indisputably the village square. The streets and paths from all directions converge there, also the windows of nearly all buildings look out there. The village square was nearly not changing during the centuries. Its dimensions are respectable: 210 x 70 metres, and, beside the chapel, also the municipal smithy and blacksmith´s house are located in it. The existence of both of these buildings is recorded as early as the beginning of 18 century and their appearance has not changed much till now. The smithy served for its purpose as late as after the World War II and a stucco decoration with the motifs of blacksmith´s tools still adorns its front. The neighbouring blacksmith´s home was changed to a shop. In the southern part of the village square, the municipal poorhouse used to stand that does not exist any more.

A typical Holasovice holding in 19 century

Most of all there were the homesteads in Holasovice that were built on an oblong ground plan in so called three-sided arrangement that was based on the fact that, on one hand, a residential building ties to the main farmhouse front turned to the village square, and, on the other hand, granary and farm buildings. The gable fronts of both the residential building and the granary look out on the village square and this particular orientation is the reason of a rich and extra imposing architectural segmentation of the gables and also of their interconnection over the in the middle standing gate or wicket. Both of the gables together with the gate and wicket constitute one architectural whole and their monolithic form optically enlarges the size of built-up area when looking from the village square and at the same time facilitates various variations of the visual conception of the whole building.

The interior disposals of separate estates were analogous. In the residential part, you entered the entrance hall from which there was access into the main residential room with windows to the gable, and also into the black kitchen on the opposite side. In the direction to the yard, farm premises, larders, cowsheds and stables, behind which the open shed followed, tied to residential rooms. Opposite to the house, the granary was situated, a usually narrower building with tiny windows in the front, divided by several timber ceilings into more, usually three, floors. Behind the granary, farther to the yard, there were cowsheds and other farm buildings, sometimes also a vaulted cellar. The earlier wooden and later masonry granary with wide gate connected both the rows of buildings at the end of built-up part. It facilitated passage through the whole estate from the village square as far as behind the backyard. Sometimes a small garden used to be under the windows in front of the house itself, sometimes the well with wooden piston pump. The yard could be put the finish touches for example by a wooden or masonry dovecot.