Field Trips

on Local Implementation of the European Landscape Convention

In short

The first field trip will focus on issues relating to the planning, management and protection of rural landscapes and will have three stops en route. It will begin with a visit to the abandoned village with field systems in the Sudetenland along the Czech / Austrian border, before moving onto the primeval forest National Nature Reserve Zofin, the oldest nature reserve in the Czech Republic, and then onto visit the cultural landscapes created by developing the Nove Hrady fish pond system.

The second field trip focuses on urban and peri-urban landscapes. This will also include three stops, starting with a visit to the UNESCO world heritage site of Cesky Krumlov, then to a new small urban “dormitory -town”, and a discussion about new peri-urban developments on the outskirts of Ceske Budejovice.

I Rural Landscapes.

Most of the Novohradské Mountains are located in what used to be the forbidden border zone under the Communistic regimes. Thanks to the resulting lack of human interference for several decades, the nature has been extraordinarily well preserved. Moreover, the region stands a very good chance to preserve this unique character; the road network is thin and industries virtually nonexistent. At the same time, however, this absence of infrastructure and job opportunities contributes to the continuing economic backwardness of the region.

The first stop is the abandoned village of Cetviny. This village is located in that forbidden zone close to the Austrian border. After the end of the Second World War, most German-speaking villagers were expatriated. In the 11950s, already under the communist regimes, the village was deliberately destroyed, with the exception of the church and some buildings used by the border police.

A visit to this abandoned village could encourage the search for new types of connectivity and continuity in both natural and cultural patterns. At this location, we will find:

EU agricultural ecological subsidies on landscape care are keeping forestless patterns with meadows and pastures intact.
From the whole rural town (about 500 people), grounded in 13 century, only the Church of the Virgin Mary escaped destruction.
The communist era left here a brownfield in the form of a destroyed military campus.
After the Sudeten farmers left, the basic landscape mosaic transformed to the more “wildlife” land-use after the 1955 demolition of the small town by blowing up the houses and subsequently levelling the terrain with bulldozers.
Cultural symbols survived in a form of legends – magic wells, pilgrimages points, and several chapels, some of them recently restored.
Old visible and invisible relationships are renovated - for example at the cemetery
New cultural symbols appears –stations of the cross
Trees on the former square survived the demolition of the town
Cetviny as a tourist landmark

We can meet mixture of the relationships. We are witness of a rare process how European landscape comes into its re-construction in terms of cultural and social construction what landscapes like this mean for us, what are their values for 21 century.

The second stop is in the primeval forest Zofin. This pristine area is protected as the National Nature Reserve Zofin, eastablished in 1839 as the first oldest nature reserve in the Czech Republic. (more details later)

The third stop is to the Nove Hrady fish pond system. The fish pond systems throughout the Trebon Basin are constructed mainly between the 15th and 17th century. Thanks to the careful management and use, most of them have developed into shallow semi-natural lakes, many of them protected under the Ramsar Convention. The fish pond system around Trebon is being submitted for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Nove Hrady fish ponds are in qulity and appreance similar, albeight smaller, as those around Trebon. (more details later).

II Urban and Peri-urban Issues

The first stop will be at Ceske Krumlov. This 13th century historic town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The second and third stops will pay attention to the new development of new small urbanisations or “sleep-towns” in the landscape and along the outskirts of Ceske Budejovice.

More details of both field trips may be added so please check again later