History of Prachatice

Foundation of the Town on the Trade Path	The Decline In 17th Century
14th century	18th Century
Trade With Salt	19th Century
Culture Development	20th Century
15th century - the Hussite Wars	Today - an Urban Restoration Area
Development in 16th century

     Already in the beginning of the earl Middle Ages the territory of the later Bohemian Kingdom was situated at the crossroads of the Europaen inland trade: the time-honored "Amber Path" was passing through Moravian dales from South to North,and from West to East the trade caravans travelled through the countries to the East regions.
     Besides these main trade thoroughfares Bohemia was connected to the neighbouring countries with a number of paths,apparently very old.One of the most important ones was later called "Golden Path" crossing the Bohemian Virgin Forest and connecting Bohemia to Bavaria.Especially in the Middle Ages,the path got a special importance thanks to the trade with the Bavarian salt,exported by pack horses from episcopal Passau to Prachatice.
     In the time of the beginning trade on the path and in connection with the colonization of the Bohemian thick forests there pobably existed the settlement (nowadays Old Prachatice) which was donated to the Vyšehrad Chapter by Vratislav I in the second half of 12th century.The neighbouring settlement - on the place of the later town - probably originated after the half of 13th century in the hollow which is surrounded by five hills - in the south with the highest of them Libín - and gradually it became the local centre.The prosperity of the town was assured when Jan - the provost of Vyšehrad leased the duty on the "Golden Path" to the inhabitants of Prachatice for 18 talents of silver and when the town gained the right of the market (a market every Thursday in a week).Other information about the pre-history see: archeology.
     In the same way as in other South Bohemian towns founded at that time the centre of the foundation of Prachatice became the Sguare equably surrounded by the rest of town.The streets on one hand connected two town gates and on the other hand formed the circle street circumscribing the curve inside the town along the fortifications which in that time were spanning the whole town only in the simple line.The two gates the Písek Gate (called the Lower Gate) in the north and the Passau Gate (called the Upper Gate) in the south originally made the only entrance to the town.The both gates were composed of the tower with a right of way in a bulwark belt and of the lower open outer part.

(Text: Mgr.Jana Koutná using the article of Jan Himler:Prachatice,in: Zprávy památkové péče Praha 1950)