A walk through Little Prague, a Polish city connected with Czech history
From Náchod, a solid road leads to the town, the asphalt road continues to Wrocław, also once a Czech town. In the opposite direction, it is worse with the road, the lag is marked, although it is constantly tame about how important the backbone road is.
We are in Kłodzko in about 40 minutes, speeding does not pay off, Czech license plates are popular with local police officers. Along the way you will pass three very nice and well-groomed spas – Kudowa, Duszniki and Polanica.
The Baroque fortress was to hold back the enemy’s invasion. She last served as a prison.
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
The logs gave the city its name
Apparently it was logs in the form of fortifications or bridges over a year, why the town received the name Kladsko.
This is where the Czech footprint begins, the first owner was the father of St. Adalbert Slavník. The German colonists, who were called here by the Czech king, took the Germanized name Glatz. When the nationalists spread here, they began to claim that the city was founded by the Romans, which means confirming the findings of Roman coins. When they did not succeed, they came up with a version in the 19th century that the city was founded by Charlemagne or Henry I of Ptáčník.
The city was an important stop on the Amber Trail, Přemysl Otakar II. apparently he planned its construction in the form of a large square and rectangular streets.
The old town is protected by a massive Baroque fortress on Zámecký vrch, one of several tourist attractions. It was King Otakar who gave the town the coat of arms of a Czech lion, a beautiful stone specimen from the 17th century stands on a fountain in Boleslav the Brave Square opposite the town hall.
Part of the exhibition is an infirmary, amputations were the order of the day.
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
Very small Prague
You can park almost in the center, for example near the stone bridge of St. John, leads across the river Kłodzko (Nysa Kłodzka) and is one of the tourist attractions. The Poles respect it very much, they compare it to the Charles Bridge in Prague, but it does not have ours. The sculptural decoration will not fix either, most of the sculptures were placed at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, which is similar to Charles’s. But that’s about it, their production was financed by the townspeople. Cities sometimes call Little Prague.
A very important personality was the first archbishop of Prague, Arnošt of Pardubice, who spent his childhood in Kłodzko and is buried in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Here you will find two of his tombstones, an old Gothic, a tomb with a reclining figure, and a new, white marble with a Baroque prelate. Arnošt founded an Augustinian monastery in the town.
Together with the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, the tabernacles are architectural gems.
The mortar of the Pilsen Škoda with a caliber of 305 mm, but it was never for strength. This is a model.
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
A fortress that was even fought for
A slightly rising street will lead us to the entrance to the baroque fortress. Along the way we pass the cash register, where tickets to the vast underground are sold. It is very interesting, the corridors lead under the whole old town. In some sections you will come across figural events. It clearly shows what happened in the cellars, they also served as shelters in times of war.
In front of the fortress itself stands a small brick shop with souvenirs related to the ever-popular series Four of a Tank and a Dog. T-shirts with actors, including Sarika, mugs, baubles… Part of the series was filmed here.
Memories of the successful series Four in a Tank and a Dog
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
From the walls of the extensive fortress you can overlook the city surrounded by modern buildings. For Charles IV. Kladsko flourished, like the whole kingdom. Everything was stopped by the Hussite wars. Under George of Poděbrady, the town prospered again, from 1458 it became the capital of the Kladské county. Everything was ruined by the Thirty Years’ War.
Then the territory became part of the Habsburg monarchy, later Prussia. The King of Prussia invested considerable funds in the defense of the city and nearby Srebrná Góra. Srebrná Góra was the largest mountain fortress in Europe, protecting Prussia from the Austrians. Today it is a museum object.
Kladno Fortress is a lot of interconnected objects, many casemates to protect the crew. On the opposite overgrown Ovčí hora are the remains of another, supporting fortress. The construction of cable cars between the hills has been considered, but there are more important things.
St. John’s Stone Bridge. It is equipped with six sculptures.
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
When visiting the mostly abandoned corridors or the massive courtyard with pliers defense, you will realize how much money the preparations for the war cost. It served under Maria Theresa for twenty years; during the war, the fortresses were filled with men otherwise housed in scattered garrisons.
Figural dioramas represent everyday life, from quarters, through military warehouses, team dormitories, to 200 men in one hall, it must have been a bacteriological war. Furthermore, the infirmary with illustrative examples of amputations, the production of bandages, and a decent portion of instruction boards on the walls, how to plot and where to throw away…
Baroque tombstone of Arnošt of Pardubice
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
A heavy dungeon, Pandura Trenck was also imprisoned here
The fortress served until 1945, there was a heavy prison. The last time Napoleon’s troops attacked the hill was in 1807. The fortress was used as a prison, which was also untied here by the well-known Count Trenck, whose queen had merit moved to a far more comfortable dungeon in Špilberk, Brno. During the First War, the leaders of the German Socialists and later the Communists, Karel Liebknecht, were also imprisoned here.
The fortress was to be defended during World War II by order of Hitler as Festung Glatz to the last man, in the end the city was liberated by the Red Army while running without a fight.
Kladská City Hall
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
How we got nothing
Although it would seem that the Kladský promontory belongs to the republic, the demand was not defeated either at the establishment of the Czechoslovak state or after the war, when the Allies decided to become part of the newly created Polish state. The dispute ended with the displacement of the Germans and the resettlement of Poles from the east, after pressure from the USSR, an interstate treaty was signed in 1958.
Kladsko was badly damaged by floods, the rampage of Kladská Nisa is reminiscent of panels on the walls of the monastery in the city center. The worst flood came in 1997, when the water was over eight meters above normal, in addition to huge material damage, 12 people died.
The Marian Column under the fortress, inspired by the Prague Column, whose replica recently returned to the Old Town Square.
Photo: Vratislav Konečný
Not just visual perceptions
The city has many restaurants, cafes, ice cream parlors. Excellent are the street stalls offering specialties, cheeses, cold cuts, pastries, and for example Pajdu with an enamel – a slice of bread like Lotrand with lard, cucumber, tomatoes, fried onions for 10 zlotys (1 zloty = 5.50 CZK). An energy bomb that will immobilize the Czech stomach for a while.
Kladsko is worth a visit, not only at the pre-Christmas markets. On the outskirts of the city stands Minieuroland, you will find over 40 objects from around the world. But sometimes there are queues for parking.
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