Kaliště (Pelhřimov District)


Kaliště is a village and municipality of the Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region, Czech Republic. It is located at the watershed of the Želivka and Sázava rivers, about northwest of Humpolec. The population is about 330.
The village in Bohemia was mentioned for the first time as a property of the Sts Peter and Paul Chapter at Vyšehrad in a 1318 deed. Its name means "wallow" in English. After the devastation of the Vyšehrad chapter during the Hussite Wars in 1420, the Bohemian King Sigismund of Luxembourg seized the property and in 1436 pledged it to the Trčka noble family at Lipnice and Světlá. It was purchased by the Harrach dynasty in 1698 and passed to the Austrian Trautson noble family in 1707.

Notable people

The village is best known for being the birthplace of the composer Gustav Mahler, whose ancestors were tenants of a distillery and ran an inn, where the child was born. The building has recently been restored.