Come to See Boskovice

[Tomaszewski]

When you happen to be in Moravia, surely don't miss the opportunity to visit Boskovice.
The town of Boskovice is situated about 40 kms to the north of Brno and is also part of the South Moravia Region. It has around 12,000 inhabitants. Although there is no especially outstanding site (like the oldest church, biggest church, most beautiful church etc.) Boskovice is regarded one of the most beatiful towns in Moravia. It's due to the atmosphere of the town as well as to numerous rebuildings in recent year thanks to which nearly all historical buildings have been repaired. It may sound stupid but in this case you really must come and feel the atmosphere of the town.

Boskovice are first referred to in 1213. You shouldn't miss to visit the town centre (the square), the last rebuildings ended there last year. The lay-out of the square is very impressive - in the upper part there is a majestic town hall, right opposite in the lower part there is the Church of St. Jacob (which shares the name as well as its characterisic featrues - and beauty - with the St. Jacon Church in Brno [img]/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ).

The square is the real town centre (which is somewhat unigue these days), you can take any direction from there and it's approximately the same distance to all other parts of the town. If you exit the square in the upper part and turn right, you'll get to the chateau area. The chateau was built between 1819 and 1826. The area consists of the chateau, a riding house, a green house and a "residence". The chateau is not aged much because until 1826 the family lived in a castle on a hill above the present chateau. Remains of the castle are still there; if you take the road from the chateau (leading to the woods), you'll get there in about 15 minutes. You can visit both the chateau and the castle (the castle is particularly impressive). The castle is not on the very top of the hill, there used to be an old castle which was burnt down (I don't know when and how). But if you get to the top, you can even find remains of the old castle (but you would probably have to go with someone local to show you, otherwise you cannot find it in the woods).

Now back to the centre: if you exit the squre right in the middle on the right side (when facing the town hall), you'll get to the Jewish town. I said there is no single one outstanding building in Boskovice (in the sense of a historic - not historical - one), there is, however, an outstanding and even unigue area, and it is the Hewish town. It's one of the most preserved complex area of former Jewish houses. It's been repaired and looks really beautiful now. When you are there, don't foget to visit the wine shop and the tea-room (I really recommned that).

I'm convinced you can find many places there that you will personally admire, I tried to point out the main ones that might interest a visitor. The official web page is: http://www.boskovice.cz Though not all of it, the most important passages about the town and the places of interest are available in English.

[Tomaszewski]

And another thing. If you should have time when visiting Boskovice, visit also Benešov, a small village to the north-west of Boskovice (around 10 kms). It is exceptional in two respects. The first one is that is a village of sheep-raisers. I have some friends who have a flock of sheep there coutning about 60 animals. And nearly everyone else in the village raises sheep. You can buy wool, meat, cheese (whatever you like concerning sheep). If someone doesn't raise sheep there, they will certainly raise horses... [img]/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
And the other respect concerns the weather. It is obviously much colder in Boskovice than in Brno, but Benešov is something to wonder at. If you leave and the sun is shining bright, there will be clouds in Boskovice, the temperature bout 2 or 3 degrees at the avarage, and when you come to Benešov, it will be hidden in clouds (it's situated higher than Boskovice}, the temperature will drop even more, and there will be either fog, or it will rain. You should perhaps see and feel Boskovice area, it's quite hard to describe the atmosphere here...
And besides that, I found out that Benešov has a unique church, its origin dating back to the 14th century.

[Tomaszewski]

There are some new photos of Boskovice in the photogallery. They were taken during my last visit there.