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| English version > Historical Monuments | | Historical MonumentsJewish monuments| The Bøeclav region is known for the abundance of its cultural monuments and landmarks, set in the beautiful landscape of the Lednice-Valtice Area which has been registered as a UNESCO-protected World Heritage site since 1996. Relics of the presence of Jewish communities are sometimes overlooked amongst the many landmarks of this region, although they can be seen not only in Mikulov (where an educational Jewish history trail was established in 2000) and Podivín, but also in Bøeclav. | |
| The first written mention of the Jews in Bøeclav dates back to the year 1414, when the records of the Liechtenstein estates show the names of Jews who settled in the region. A larger Jewish community with a synagogue and a cemetery developed, by the end of the 16th century. In 1572, the general synod of Moravian Jews took place in Bøeclav, headed by the renowned Rabbi Yehuda Löw ben Bezalel (then of Bøeclav). During the Thirty Years’ War, the Jewish community was totally destroyed. Only the period name meaning “abandoned Jewish place” remains today. The second settlement of Jews in Bøeclav took place in 1651, when the master of the town admitted a considerable group, which had been banished from nearby Valtice. By 1702, thirty Jewish families occupied twelve houses. A royal decree from 1726 ruled that 66 officially sanctioned Jewish families would be permitted to reside in Bøeclav. After the Jews acquired their civil rights in the mid-nineteenth century, they moved from outside villages into Bøeclav, further increasing its population. Upon the creation of independent Czechoslovakia, the separate Jewish political community was abolished in 1919. The terror of Nazi racial genocide during the Second World War was the tragic end of the centuries-long presence of the Jews in this region. Two scholarly rabbis worked in Bøeclav – Mordecai Benet (from 1787 to 1789) and Heinrich Schwenger (from 1911 to 1913). Bøeclav was also the birthplace of Julius Lieban (1857-1940), the opera singer. The Kuffner family, owners of the local sugar mill, was some of the most prominent figures on the local economic scene. | |
| Interior of the Synagogue: |
| | The Jewish Quarter in Bøeclav was situated to the south of the main square towards Dubiè. It was composed of four streets - Templová, Lázeòská, Jateèní and Sladová. Jewish houses were typically smaller than usual in size and built very close together so as to make use of every last inch. They were usually erected without any outbuildings or gardens. A part of the area has fortunately avoided destruction (24 out of the original 72 houses) and has been preserved up to the present in a modernized form. Next to the Synagogue, the building of the former Jewish elementary school, used until 1923, has been preserved. A Jewish abattoir was situated in the house at 1 Lázeòská Street, and the ritual purification bath was housed at 17 Lázeòská Street. The Old Synagogue was destroyed in 1643 by the Swedes and replace by the New Synagogue in 1671-1672. However, this poorly-made building collapsed in 1697 and a new sanctuary was erected on the same spot. However, by the second half of the 19th century this building proved too small to hold all of the then increased population of Jews and in 1868 it was replaced by a new temple financed by the mayor, David Kuffner. In 1888 it was renovated by Max Fleischer, a renowned Viennese architect, in a Neo-Roman style, using Moorish elements in the interior. The inner space is topped with a flat ceiling made of beatifully decorated beams. For as much as fifty years the Synagogue was used as a storage place. From 1997-1999 it underwent complete reconstruction and is now used for cultural and social purposes. In addition to housing a standing display on local Jewish history and the town of Bøeclav, it also serves as a gallery of fine arts, concert hall and venue for numerous other events. | |
| | The Jewish cemetery can be found in Veslaøská Street, around 700 metres north of the main square. It was probably founded after the mid-seventeenth century, as can be concluded from its irregular shape and elevation from the adjacent ground. Its area of 7,136 m2 is covered with approximately 400 gravestones, the oldest ones from the beginning of the 18th century. The shape and structure of the tombstones, the oldest are those of “South-Moravian” or “Mikulov” types, with rich three-dimensional Baroque decorations, sometimes with relief symbols relating to the deceased. The eastern part of the Cemetery, next to the entrance, is dominated by the majestic tomb of the Kuffner family. The burial ground is fenced around with a partially preserved wall of fair-faced brickwork and glazed moulded bricks from Poštorná. Together with the former ceremonial hall and the house of the gravedigger, which were built in the same style and using the same materials, it forms a unique complex of rare aesthetic effect. The premises of the Cemetery, completed in 1892 according to the design of Franz Neumann, a Viennese architect, are typical of the Bøeclav region. In the 1980s, the Cemetery was heavily damaged, but the town of Bøeclav had it repaired in the early 1990s, having expended 1.5 million crowns for this purpose. | |
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Ecclesiastic buildings| There are some places, which have seen many areas, and yet, because they were so remote from the important routes and crossroads used during the conflicts of nations struggling for better territories or hunting grounds, they have remained almost untouched. Today, we can admire the time-honoured buildings of such places; whose stonewalls whisper to us of history. Bøeclav, however, grew up around the site of a border castle which took its name from its founder, Prince Bøetislav, and was used from as early as the 11th century to protect the entry to the country from Austrian side. In its time, the castle, and later the whole town, had to fulfil this role frequently; perhaps this explains why today there are not as many historical monuments as one might expect in view of the locality’s long and rich history. Shortly after the building of the castle, the baptismal church of the Archdeaconry of Bøeclav, dedicated to Saint Wenceslas, was erected outside the walls, on the spot where today’s town square lies; in the year 1141, this church numbered amongst the six most important churches of Moravia along with those of Olomouc, Pøerov, Spytihnìv, Brno and Znojmo.A succession of churches has stood on the same spot over time, of which the last destroyed by the bombing of Bøeclav in 1944. The center of the town square then stood empty until the middle of the nineties of the twentieth century; when there were celebrations to dedicate a new church, once again to its former patron, Saint Wenceslas. Besides this largest of Bøeclav’s churches, the town also has an Evangelical parish church, a Seven Day Adventist church and a numbers of smaller structures – statues of the crucifixion and chapels, such as the chapel by the railway station, built in the year 1856 by Prince Alois of Liechtenstein as a thanksgiving for healing. | |
| | Both large and small ecclesiastic buildings can also be found in the surroundings of Bøeclav. The most significant of these is probably the monumental Church of the Annunciation in Poštorná, whilst the unusual architectural design of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Ladná is rather eye-catching. In the centre of Charvátská Nová Ves is the little chapel of Our Lady as well as three statues of the crucifixion; ecclesiastic architecture is to be found in Stará Bøeclav in the form of the chapel of Saint Martin, which replaced the original church the patron saint of which is unknown, and most particularly the statue of the crucifixion known as near Stará Bøeclav, which is unquestionably the most well-known statue of the crucifixion in the country. | |
| | The Parish Church of Saint Wenceslas stands on the site of the original Baroque church, which was destroyed by Anglo-American allied forces air-raids on November 20th 1944. The dedication of the new church by the Bishop of Brno, Msgr. Vojtìch Cikrle, on September 10th 1995 was the climax of more than fifty years of attempts on the part of the Bøeclav parishioners to renew their church, and at the same time it was the long-desired end to the use of temporary premises in which religious services had had to be conducted until then. In fact this monumental modern building is a worthy final bead in the rosary formed by the long line of churches which stood on this spot in the middle of the town square mid 13th century. | |
| | The artistic design was carried out by the Brno artist Ludvík Kolek, who has been working on the design of ecclesiastic buildings for many years now, and the Bøeclav church is, after the church in Hustopeèe, finished in 1994, Kolek’s second project in the Bøeclav region. The interior design of the church is the result of co-operation between several craftsmen under the direction of the sculptor Karel Stádník, who is the creator of various pieces including the Stations of the Cross on the sidewalls of the church nave. Seen from the outside, the positioning of the bells in the open space between the towers is very impressive. The largest bell, weighing 752 kilograms and known as Santa Maria Bassanella, was a gift from the church community of Soave in Northern Italy; and Saint Joseph, weighing 311 kilograms, was donated to the church by the Bøeclav parishioners. The company of Josef Tkadlec in Hlavenkov produced both. The bell known as Saint Wenceslas, weighing 615 kilograms, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Dohnal from USA, was made by the Marie Tomášková-Dytrychová bell works in Brodek u Pøerova. The crypt gives access to exposed elements of the foundations of the original Romanesque church, and a permanent exhibition can be seen which documents individual periods in the existence of the church in Bøeclav from the Romanesque era up until today. | |
| | The Parish Church of the Annunciation in Poštorná was built by the reigning prince, Jan II of Liechtenstein, in place of original building, which, at the end of the nineteenth century, was no longer large enough to meet the needs of the parish. The first stone was laid in 1895 and as early as July 3rd 1898 the new church was dedicated. The plans for the building were drawn up by the Liechtenstein court architect Karl Weinbrenner, who also designed the entire interior of the church and sacristy with the exception only of the organ, which was made by the notable Krnov organ makers, the Rieger Brothers. The larger than life-size statue of Jesus which can be seen in a niche above the front door is the work of Josef Bayer. The building is striking in the choice of materials used, in particular the green glazed roof tiles. The local prince’s ceramics works supplied the building materials, consisting of two hundred types of bricks, tiles and glazed ceramic roofing tiles. The church may be described as having a predominance of Neo-Gothic elements, lending a historical appearance, typical of the period of the reign of Jan II of Liechtenstein at the turn of the nineteenth century. Thanks to the combination of the materials used and to the imposing nature of the building, created both by the singular architectonic design and by the massive proportions of the whole structure, the church is a unique piece of architecture, and one of the most significant landmarks of Bøeclav today. | |
| | The Church of the Archangel Michael in Ladná was erected on the site of the Chapel of Saint Michael, built in 1849. The Neo-Romanesque building, which was financed by Prince Jan II of Liechtenstein, was started in April 1912 and in October of the same year the new church was dedicated. Structural and decorative elements produced by the ceramics works in Poštorná were used. | |
| | The Evangelical Parish Church is in the center of Bøeclav on Husova Street. The church was designed by the architect M. Tejc in the functionalist style and has been used from its completion in 1933, when it replaced the previous chapel used by the church in what is today’s printing office, also on Husova Street. | |
| | The Church of the Seven Day Adventists in Bøeclav stands on the corner of Jungmannova and Jiráskova Streets, not far from the banks of the Dyje River. Clearly antiquating architectonic elements were used in the construction, which was completed in 1911. | |
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| Hunting lodge Pohansko near Bøeclav - archaeological reservation | | Phone: +420 519 374 248 Open: From April to October Tue - Su 9.00 - 17.00 | |
| | The Pohansko Archaeological Park and exhibition are located approximately 3 kilometres south of Bøeclav. One of the most interesting findings is a magnates court from the 9th century fenced with a wooden palisade, with a stone church, a burial ground, fifty houses, some of which are based on stone and mortar sustaining walls, and household and craft buildings. | |
| The exhibition located in the Pohansko Empire chateau is divided into two sections. The main feature of the first hall is the model of the magnates court. The second hall is thematically divided into four subjects: the oldest Slavs, the magnates residence, the military suite, and craftsmen and farmers. Many archaeological findings are on display, such as ceramics, agricultural and craft tools, equipment for horseback riding, and weapons, as well as golden and silver jewels. Museum Bøeclav - Pohansko |
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| Responsible person: TIC Bøeclav, last update: 3.9.2005 9:56. |
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