Blatná


Blatná is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, with a water castle in the center of an artificial lake and a landscape garden around it. It lies in a pleasant rolling countryside with a mosaic of fields, meadows and hundreds of ponds.
Blatná is also the seat of the Municipality with Extended Competence and Municipality with Commissioned Local Authority within the same borders.

History

The Castle

Although the area has been inhabited since the 6th century, the first written record of Blatná dates back to 1235, when probably just a wooden fortress built on a rocky piece of land in the middle of a marshland existed. Not much is known about the castle until the second half of the 13th century, when it becomes the property of the house of Bavorové of Strakonice. There exists a legend that in those times the fortress was a seat of the Templars who are said to have hidden a treasure somewhere in the castle. The only remaining construction from this period are the foundations of a Romanesque chapel.
From 1391 the castle and then already existing town belonged to the house of Lvové of Rožmitál. Under the new masters the fortress was for the first time rebuilt in stone and the surrounding marshes were changed into wide water trenches, thus giving the castle the looks of "A swan sitting in a lake". Their long rule marks the golden age of this place. Lvové were continuously rebuilding and enlarging the castle, first with the so-called Old Palace, standing separatedly over the remnants of the Romanesque Chapel. In 1523–1530, under the guidance of renowned royal builder Benedikt Ried of Piesting, a new palace in a mixed Gothic-Renaissance style was appended.
In the second half of the 17th century, the castle was owned by the house of Šternberkové for a short time until it was bought by the Polish house of Rozdražovští of Rozdražov in 1579 who had a new Renaissance palace built. During their rule, the castle and town were looted. The Baroque period is marked by the Hungarian house of Serényi who had the castle rebuilt and also erected many statues in the town and its surroundings. They also completely rebuilt the church in Paštiky.
Since 1798, the castle has belonged to the Tyrolian house by origin of Hildprandtové of Ottenhausen, except the period of communist dictatorship when it was confiscated by the state. In 1850–1856 the castle received its last rebuilt, in English Gothic style, which gave it its contemporary looks.
The castle is now being restored with most of the works finished. It is still open for tourists, together with the magnificent landscape garden.

The Town

The settlement around the castle was promoted to a little town probably around 1300. In 1601 it gained a full town status. The town burned down completely on 1834-09-13 - 118 houses, the town hall and the bell tower were destroyed and therefore most buildings in the town come from after that event.

The Lords of Blatná

The town lies on the small river of Lomnice in a gently rolling area built of granite rocks, thus the soils are not very fertile. There are many granite quarries, some closed ones are now flooded and are they very scenic places. In past there were many marshes making the countryside even less hospitable. Since the Middle Ages, however, people have been transforming the land by building plethora of small to large lakes which now grace the area. The largest artificial lake is Labuť at 108.5 ha some 5 km to the north-east of the town.

Climate

Blatna enjoys an inland version of temperate Oceanic climate with rather balanced temperatures year round. Precipitations are vastly in form of rain, totalling 691 mm. There are four pronounced seasons with notably cold, dry, and murky winter season, contrasting with much sunnier and wetter warm seasons. Average round the clock temperatures in July stays on +17.2 °C and January mean temperatures stays on −2.5 °C. The whole year average is.

Places of interest

Castle

The castle is undoubtedly the town's greatest attraction. It is built on a rock surrounded by a moat, which looks rather like a lake. The castle is narrow, U-shaped, with a tower in front to which the palaces from various periods attach. It opens to a large landscaped garden. Some of the castle has been recently reconstructed and it is open to the public in the tourist season. Most of the castle is in a very bad state for a long time already.
It spreads next to the castle on an area of. The park was created as an English landscape garden at the beginning of the 19th century by František Hildprandt. Its part close to the castle surrounds a large meadow with very old solitary oak trees. Beyond the meadow are preserved old woods with alleys, swamps, streams with footbridges over them, artificial caves, remnants after placer mining and an Empire-style summer house. A herd of tame fallow deer freely roams the park, which is open to the public year-round.

Gothic church

The Church of the Assumption of Mary lies next to the castle, at the end of the main square. It was founded around 1290 as a two-aisled building with a long presbytery, and small adytum on the north side. It gained its present looks in 1515 when a rebuilt was finished. It is surprisingly large for even then a rather small town, with its length of and height of.

Bell tower

The Bell Tower in its present location was first built in 1723 when a tower was erected. It was destroyed with most of the town in the big fire of 1834 but was soon built again, at of height.

School

There are two elementary schools in town.
A very large building from 1902–1904 which carries the name of J. A. Commenius., built by Karel Fiala, an architect who participated in the reconstruction of the Prague Castle.

Church in Paštiky

A unique Baroque Church of St. John the Baptist towering over Blatná some to the north. It stands on a place of an older parish church from the 14th century. It was completely rebuilt by renowned architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer between 1747–1752, on the order of countess Serényi. The church is a single-aisled building ended in a rectangular presbytery with richly decorated cornices in a Rococo style. The carvings inside are by Ferdinand Ublacker, the paintings are by J. V. Spitzer. It is currently undergoing a reconstruction. Next to the church is a cemetery with a Mortuary Chapel under which is the family crypt of the house of the Hildprandts.

Notable people

Blatná is twinned with: