A small Czech village

Holašovice, Czech Republic

It’s quiet here. Really quiet. The public bus I arrived on is rumbling down the road away from me.

I was the only passenger who got off here and I’m standing by the side of the road alone. The engine of the bus is the only sound and now it’s almost gone.

I’ve come out to the small village of Holašovice, near the large urban centre of Česke Budejovice. It seems like a world away from the activity of the big city I’ve just come from.

No shopping centres or market squares, no large hotels or industrial parks. In fact, Holašovice only has 23 houses in its centre. But they are why I’m here.

This small community is a perfect representation of the traditional villages that used to dot the countryside of Central Europe. Most of them – almost all of them, in fact – have now disappeared.

Holašovice is one of the few that remain and the only one that hasn’t been dramatically changed. It’s why UNESCO has included it on the World Heritage List.

Holašovice has been quiet before – and it’s one of the reasons it still has the appearance of centuries ago.

After the Second World War, it was abandoned and stood deserted under the communist regime. It wasn’t until 1990 that people started moving in to the buildings again and restoring them.

The population grew until it reached the 140 people who live here today.

The 23 houses are all placed around a central square with a pond and a community building in the middle. Effectively, there is just one street in the village that forms a vague rectangle shape, about 200 metres long and 50 metres wide.

The houses might better be described as ‘farmyards’ because that’s effectively what they are. Most of them have an entrance gate that leads to a yard behind the front wall.

If you continued further back, past the main buildings, you would reach a small plot of land that was once used for farming. The larger homesteads tend to have things like granaries on the site as well.

For visitors, the first thing you see is the facades of these farms. They were generally built during a period from the early nineteenth century and are colourful with white stucco ornamentation.

Each is different, with its own individual design. But consistent elements across each of them create a continuous artwork, like a mural with a 360 degree perspective.

The ground plan of Holašovice may be from the Middle Ages but these decorations place the village in a particular period of time, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century when farmers were coming out from under the control of lords and they had more money to spend on aesthetics.

It created a new style known as South Bohemian Folk Baroque.

As I walk around, looking at the buildings, popping inside one to order a coffee, taking photos, the grassy square in the middle has become busier.

I must have beaten the tourist rush because there are now several dozen people also walking around and looking at the village.

It’s certainly not crowded – this part of the Czech Republic is not nearly as popular as Prague – but my declaration that Holašovice was quiet seems slightly premature.

I don’t think these new arrivals will stay long. Having said that, neither will I. There is not a lot to see or do here other than the obvious.

That’s not a problem – in fact, it’s quite nice. There are no artificial attractions to cater to tourists.

Holašovice is not an open air museum, it is a real village where people live and work.

It could easily have continued its fall into disrepair after World War II but it has been saved and, for those of us who are interested in cultural heritage, that is very pleasing to see.

I found there was a bus that left Česke Budejovice at 11:00 and arrived at 11:40. It then came back through Holašovice at 12:50. For me, an hour was long enough to see the village, take a bunch of photos and have a coffee.

I would recommend staying overnight in Česke Budejovice if you’re not in a rush. The historic centre of the city is beautiful and nice for a meal. You can also visit the Budweiser Brewery.