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TÁBOR | |
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The forerunner of Tábor town was the settlement and fortress
Hradiště, burned down by the Vítkovici. The Hussites who took Ústí town in 1420 by
force did not feel safe in the burned town and led their followers to a deserted place
below Hradiště. There they built up a town which they called Hradiště of Mt. Tábor.
Its leader was Mikuláš of Hus with three other captains whose place after he died was
taken by Jan Žižka of Trocnov. After the defeat of the Táborites in the battle of Lipany the community signed an agreement with Emperor Sigismund who granted Tábor the privileges of a royal town in the following year. Huge stone walls began to be built on an irregular square which included the tower of burned - down Hradiště, called Kotnov. A network of crooked little streets ran in all directions from the square to the walls. When the papal legate, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini visited Tábor in 1451 he wrote in his History about the Tábor fortifications: "....(Tábor) is protected by an excessively big ditch and excessively high wall. " He himself designated the Hussites as the inventors of the barbican. Under Tábor there is a network of passages and cellars which served as a refuge when the town was attacked and also during the frequent fires. The square is the highest part of the town. The town hall, built about the same time as the Church of the Transfiguration, bears above the door on a stone sign the oldest sculptured picture of Jan Žižka and Master Jan Hus. Many Tábor houses have Renaissance gables of intricate design. The decanal Church of the Transfiguration, founded in 1440, damaged by frequent fires, was given Renaissance gables at the end of the nave. After the Battle of the White Mountain Tábor was invaded several times and became a poor town. The only important relic of the Baroque era is the complex of the Augustinian monastery buildings with the Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. |
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