*A visit to the historic town of Hořice (home to one of Bohemia’s most famous sweets): 2 km to 7 km*

• The east Bohemian town of Hořice is probably best known to Czechs today as the home of the famous ‘hořické trubičky‘, a type of sweet creamy wafer roll. On Napoleon’s retreat from Russia in 1812 part of his army passed through Bohemia. According to legend, Napoleon’s personal chef had been wounded and was nursed back to health by a certain Mrs. Líčková from Hořice. In return, the chef divulged the secret recipe for trubičky, apparently a favourite of the Imperial General.
• The town also has quite a few other important claims to fame, which span many millennia. As the following notes hopefully convey, Hořice is a cultural and historical kaleidoscope. It is therefore definitely worth a visit, even by those without a sweet tooth!
• The town is located on the south slope of the Hořice ridge, the first major upland area north of the Labe valley. Given its strategic prominence in the landscape of Central Bohemia, it is not a surprise to discover that the ridge has been occupied since prehistoric times. In the Bronze Age, hillforts lined the ridge and these were reused in later periods, most obviously in the Slavic early medieval period. The forts were used to control the trade routes heading north into Silesia and east in Moravia.
• Hořice ridge is also a source of high quality sandstone. For this reason, in the 19th century, the town became an important center for stonework and the creation of sculptures. Some of the earliest known sandstone statues of prominent Czech figures of the time, including Dvořák, Smetana, Miroslav Tyrš and Mikuláš Aleš were created here. They are displayed today in a local park – which has effectively become an open-air gallery ( map point 3 below).
• Hořice is associated with several of the most important conflicts that affected the Czech lands from the Medieval period onwards. On 20 April 1423, the legendary radical Hussite general, Jan Žižka, fought a key battle on the edge of the town. He pitted his forces against a combined Catholic and moderate Hussite army led by the controversial Bohemian noble, Čeněk of Vartenberk. Žižka, who was by then totally blind, successfully defended Gotthard hill against the massed charges of Vartenberk’s cavalry, once again using his famous ‘wagenburg’ (wagon fort) strategy.
• At the time, Gotthard hill was the site of a small fortress, originally built in the 13th century. The fortress was probably destroyed in the Hussite conflict. Only the rampart and moat remains today. In the center of of the mound stands one the earliest known statue of Žižka – also a product of the 19th century sandstone school – proudly surveying the battlefield. It is shown on the map at point 4.
• The Hořice township was also one of many estates that changed hands as a consequence of the devastating 17th century conflict, the Thirty Years War. At the time of the Bohemian Estates uprising against the Habsburg rule in 1618, Hořice was owned by possibly Bohemia’s richest man at the time, Albrecht Jan Smiřický, who was was also one of the leaders of the revolt. Smiřický was directly responsible for one of those uniquely Czech forms of protest – the ‘defenestration’ of officials out of Prague windows. Usually this had deadly consequences, although in this particular case the three Catholic victims miraculously survived. Despite their survival, the 1618 defenestration is considered the trigger point for the conflict, one of Europe’s longest lasting and most deadly wars.
• Smiřický was a important political character at the time of the defenestration. His fiancée was the grand-daughter of William of Orange (the same William who led the Dutch Revolution that displaced the Habsburg rule from much of the Netherlands in the 16th century). This placed Smiřický in the highest echelons of Protestant nobility in Europe at the time. He may therefore be viewed as a potential candidate for the Bohemian crown, in the event that the Uprising succeeded in displacing Bohemia’s Habsburg rulers. Smiřický was one of the wealthiest nobles in Bohemia and had the funds to finance a large private army. Well paid mercenary forces were critical to the success (and ultimate failure) of the Uprising.
• Unfortunately for the outcome of the rebellion, Smiřický died of tuberculosis less than six months after initiating the defenestration. The loss of Smiřický, his funds and the private army it financed, was fatal to the Uprising. The the calamitous defeat at White Mountain in 1620 was ultimately due the undersize and poor morale of the Protestant forces (who had not been paid for months). Had Smiřický lived, there is case to be made that the Bohemian Estates would have had a figurehead who could have both united the squabbling leaders and funded a Protestant victory, potentially changing the whole course of European history.
• Hořice’s School of Sculpture was also responsible for a remarkable monument built on the hillside overlooking the town. Conceived as a viewing tower in the late 19th century, the monument’s foundation stone was laid in the presence of President T.G. Masaryk in 1926. Masaryk’s ‘Tower of Independence’ has subsequently become a war memorial and is adorned by sculptures from the local school. One of the local sculptors whose work features at the monument is the famous ex Legionnaire Frantisek Duchac-Vyskocil (1886 -1927), who also has a well known sculpture of Mikuláš Aleš in the Hořice park (see picture below).
• It is definitely worth walking up the hill to visit Masaryk’s Tower and while doing so, circle around the equally historic Dachova natural swimming pool with its restored wooden architecture, dating from the 1920’s (map point 6). The full tour of these various attractions is less than 7 km, with around 140m of height to ascend/descend. The route can be managed with a stroller. For refreshments on the route, consider a stop at the cozy, SG café bar (map point 2).

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’  to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.com site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions

• Hořice is on a train line connecting with Hradec Králové, but most visitors will probably be driving, in which case there is parking directly on the main square
• The route shown in the map above is partly on marked trails and partly on unmarked side streets. As a consequence, it is best followed using the mapy.com phone application or a good paper map