East Bohemia - tradition and the art of craftsmanship
With an area of 458.9 km2, the Pardubice Region is the ninth largest administrative unit in the Czech Republic. It has just over half a million inhabitants, but the richness of the region is reflected in its many folk and folklore traditions and its unique handicrafts. The regional capital is Pardubice, and the second largest town is Chrudim. Historically, the area is also known as East Bohemia.
The Koulier Christmas bauble manufactory
The Koulier Christmas decoration manufactory in the village of Oflenda shows how much importance this part of the country attaches to preserving tradition. The factory reopened in 2021 thanks to the determination of the Šrámek couple, who decided that the tradition and skills of its former workers must not be lost. The semi-finished product - glass tubing - is imported from Germany, but everything else is made on site. Moulds are used to make the 'snowmen' and 'Santas', but all the round or elongated baubles are hand-blown. Many of them are inspired by the work of the Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha, who had links with Chrudim. The manufactory is open to visitors, and a visit is combined with a workshop where you can decorate a bauble of your own design. There is also a shop on site.
Shrovetide processions at the Veselý Kopec open-air museum
The folk carnival in East Bohemia is definitely worth seeing. By tradition, two villages - Vortová and Studnice - are responsible for staging it at the Veselý Kopec open-air museum. This year the Shrovetide procession, winding among the log houses and farmsteads, was presented by the people of Vortová. Only men take part in the procession, but some of them play female roles. These customs are still kept alive in the villages of Blatno and Hamry, and the whole ceremony is inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage as the 'Shrovetide door-to-door processions and masks in the villages of the Hlinecko area'. The parade must include a 'Jew', and there are also 'Turks', a 'barber-surgeon', a 'chimney sweep', 'straw men' and a 'mare'. The mare has a special role in the ritual trial, at the end of which she is 'put to death' - and then, of course, comes back to life.
Once there, you witness, or even take part in, the pranks: you get smeared with greasy soot and tipped into snowdrifts. The open-air museum regularly hosts many outdoor events, and a simple stroll among the centuries-old wooden buildings is highly recommended (the site is open from April to October).
Betlém in Hlinsko and chenille weaving
Traditional log cottages can also be found in the historic part of the town of Hlinsko, known as Betlém. The story of how they came to be is intriguing. Part of the town was once a large meadow where cattle grazed. The discovery of underground clay deposits led potters to settle there. They did not want to adopt a townsman's way of life, however, and built the kind of cottages they knew from their home villages. The first wooden buildings went up in 1731, but when the clay deposits ran out (around 1870), the potters had to change trades. From then on wooden toys, files and fabrics were produced here. Today it is a legally protected heritage area.
In one of the houses, 'žinylka' caterpillar fabrics are made. This fabric was very fashionable in the 1930s. The last year of production was 1982, as under communism the material was considered too bourgeois. Chenille is a type of fabric with a fluffy surface, created with a unique hand-weaving technique that originated in France (hence the name of the fabric - chenille, meaning caterpillar). Its production became an important branch of hand weaving, especially in Hlinsko, after Josef Lašek perfected the technique in 1890. At its height, from the end of the First World War until the occupation in 1938, as many as 3,500 weavers were engaged in its production, spreading the fame of chenille fabric almost all over the world. Apart from carpets, the products were decorative - cushion covers or bedspreads, for example. Chenille scarves were a chapter of their own.
Mr Fiedler became fascinated by weaving, built himself a wooden hand loom and began to pursue his passion. He soon joined the company Hybler textil Semily. Unfortunately, after a few years the owners closed the factory. So Mr Fiedler set up a weaving workshop at home, bought a professional hand loom and set to work in earnest. He then rented a cottage in the Betlém architectural reserve as his workshop. One day someone brought him an old chenille scarf and asked whether it could be woven again. Mr Fiedler then became interested in chenille, gathered the information he needed and decided to start producing it.
Silk or viscose (wood fibre) is used in production. Today a 'caterpillar' scarf costs around PLN 1,800, and a poncho around PLN 6,000. The buyers are people with a great fondness for the garments left to them by their grandmothers and great-grandmothers, very fashionable Czech women and government agencies looking for original gifts to present during official visits.
Slatiňany Chateau and historic Chrudim
At the foot of the Iron Mountains stands Slatiňany, a cosy aristocratic residence. The interiors of the chateau seem to have remained unchanged since the days when Franz Joseph of Auersperg lived here. They are very well preserved in their 19th-century state, and many rooms are decorated in English style, as the family was inspired by the English way of life. A great many original furnishings have survived, and some have been borrowed from the central depositories of the Czech Republic. The historic rooms are not everything, though: the residence is surrounded by a beautiful English park, and horse breeding is part of the heritage of the place. The Czech-Slovak period film 'Služka' ('The Maid') was recently shot here, and it may also reach Polish screens.
The first documents mentioning the town of Chrudim date from 1055, when it was named as the burial place of one of the Czech rulers. We know little about those times, but there is much to suggest that a fortified settlement stood behind the present Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The church dominates the town's main square, where the beautiful burghers' houses and the elaborately carved plague column are also worth a look. The church was rebuilt several times and did not escape dramatic events. After a serious fire it lost its Baroque character and became an example of the Gothic Revival. This small town has no fewer than three museums: a regional museum with an exhibition of works by Alfons Mucha, a museum of Baroque sculpture and a museum of puppetry culture.
The Museum of Puppetry Cultures in Chrudim
Your first steps should take you to the Mydlář House, home to a beautiful collection of theatre puppets. The magical world created by puppets has won international recognition, as 'Puppetry in Slovakia and Czechia' has been inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list. It is worth adding that the Museum of Puppetry Cultures in Chrudim is the oldest museum of its kind in the Czech Republic (founded in 1972) and one of the few that also exhibits theatre puppets from other parts of the world; Poland is represented by 'Jacek and Agatka', the much-loved puppets of Polish children's television. Puppetry played an important role in the Czech lands in the 19th century, a time when Czech national identity was being revived. Performances were given in Czech, while the bourgeoisie and nobility were by then commonly using German. Czech fairy tales and legends were cherished, such as the story of Jan Hus.
Families put on performances with a dozen or so puppets and several dozen costumes into which the puppets could be changed. Several hours of acting with a wooden puppet weighing several kilograms required real strength, but over time puppets hollowed out inside were gradually introduced. The musical accompaniment was often provided by a barrel organ. 1911 marked the peak of puppetry's development, as it came to be recognised as a form of high art. One of the puppets even stood in the office of the first President of Czechoslovakia. Under communism puppet theatre continued to develop, although touring companies were banned from travelling around the country. All performances took place in dedicated theatres. The highlight of the Chrudim museum's activities is the annual festival of amateur puppet theatres, 'Loutkářská Chrudim', held in the town at the turn of June and July.
Skuteč - botasky shoes and paving setts
Skuteč in the Pardubice Region is the centre of the former stonemasonry and shoemaking industries. The local museum has permanent exhibitions devoted to these two traditional crafts. The phenomenon of the Botana company - which made sports shoes known as 'botasky' - is widely known and understood in the Czech Republic. Just as Poles used to call any trainers "adidasy", so that even Pumas were "Puma adidasy", the Czechs called theirs "botasky", even if they were Nikes, and many Czechoslovak athletes won medals wearing shoes from Skuteč. Today it is history - the company ceased trading in January 2023 - so the Czechs, Poland's southern neighbours, now visit the place with a touch of nostalgia.
Another activity in the region is quarrying - of the seven types of local rock, five are different kinds of granite - and an exhibition is devoted to it too. The open-air section is particularly absorbing, as you can start up some of the historic machines yourself. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Skuteč area was the largest exporter of paving setts. Suffice it to say that people still walk and drive on them in Prague, Brno, Vienna, Budapest, Kraków and Hamburg.
The small Pardubice Region, with its wealth of folk and folklore traditions and exceptional handicrafts, is well worth a visit. The skills of the old craftsmen are often passed down here from generation to generation, and the uniqueness of its traditions is recognised by international bodies, including UNESCO.
