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Znojmo in south Moravia retains a peaceful, rural feel and offers excellent opportunities for wine-tasting.
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Southern accents
Slowing down to savor the sights and tastes of Znojmo
By
Valerie Bauman
For The Prague Post
(October 2, 2003)
It was well past the closing time posted on the door, but Filip Hlavka told us to hang out as long as we liked.
It may not have been his call -- he was a regular at this little Znojmo pub, not an employee -- but the bartender, sitting next to us lazily drinking a beer, didn't seem to mind.
We'd met Hlavka a few hours earlier, when he'd wandered into his local bar and spotted our knot of American and British tourists. He delightedly invited us to join him and his friend for a drink. Cigarette smoke curling toward the ceiling and a permanent grin on his face, the 23-year-old shared his thoughts about his southern Moravian hometown.
"What I like about this little town is that it is relatively peaceful," he said. "That's more helpful than 10 psychiatrists!"
As we stepped out of the pub (over Hlavka's friendly but strenuous objections) and into the late-evening cool, the streets were mostly empty. Znojmo at 9 or 10 feels like a town at rest. "You wouldn't find any luxurious restaurants or bars here," said Magda Lindova, a local tour guide. Still, even if you don't know where you are going, it doesn't take long to find another pub full of welcoming locals.
While it's popular with Austrian tourists -- the border is only 20 kilometers (12 miles) away -- Znojmo retains a quiet, rural feel. Even at the busiest times of day the atmosphere is warm and relaxed.
GETTING THERE
By car: Highway D1 to exit 112 (Jihlava), E59 to Znojmo
By bus/train: Taking the train to Znojmo usually involves indirect routes and multiple connections. Buses are more convenient, with direct service from Florenc station three times daily and once more on Saturday. The trip takes three to three and a half hours. There is regular bus service between Znojmo and Vranov nad Dyji.
GETTING INFORMED
The tourist information office is located at Obrokova 10. For more information call 515 222 552,
e-mail tic@besada.znojmo.cz
or go to
www.znojmocity.cz.
GETTING IN
Underground tour: 40 Kc; 20 Kc for students, children under 15 and retirees
Town Hall tower: same as above
Wine-tasting at Znovin: 60 Kc
Vranov Castle: 150 Kc
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You can take it all in from the 80-meter (264-foot) Town Hall tower, with breathtaking views over the clusters of red rooftops, the Church of St. Nicholas, the Romanesque Rotunda of St. Catherine and modest Znojmo Castle, across the Dyje river into the surrounding countryside. On a clear day you can see the Austrian Alps. Time may not exactly stand still here, but it doesn't seem very important to the locals: The two bell towers ring the hour almost 10 minutes apart.
Lindova, 20, said she would never leave Znojmo for the big city.
"I liked the cultural opportunities [of Prague] -- many theaters, clubs, etc. -- but the life there is hectic," she said. "In Znojmo you can reach everything on foot in several minutes. You can use the bus, but you needn't."
Znojmo does have a subway of sorts, but it isn't for mass transit. Beneath the streets is a 25-kilometer network of tunnels, known locally as the Underground, built between the 13th and 17th centuries and used for storage and shelter during sieges and natural disasters. Only 1 kilometer of the eerie, low-ceilinged subterranean system is open to the public, but that's plenty of space in which to find yourself wondering if you took a right when you should have gone left. Beware of guides who delight in briefly trapping oblivious tourists inside the catacombs and flickering the lights.
Znojmo's chief claim to fame is well above ground. "This is an agricultural region," said Marta Stehlikova, who has lived in nearby Novy Saldorf since 1950. "There are cucumbers and apricots and mainly wine." (It's also the pickled-gherkin capital of the country.)
Stehlikova's son carries on the local tradition of winemaking just for family and friends in a small, noncommercial cellar.
"The traditions are still maintained here, and in large cities they aren't anymore," she said. "Local people are interested in maintaining it. Traditions are important to them."
If you aren't fortunate enough to get invited to one of these private cellars, the commercial winery Znovin Znojmo offers a tour of the 12th-century monastery where it makes its reds and whites. The tour takes in large banquet rooms, vast cellars and an underground crypt with a statue of Christ laid out in the slumber of death. After an hour visitors find themselves in a cool stone chamber with several types of wine to try. Taste them while you can -- the guides are quick to usher guests out of the dark, romantic cellar and into the wine shop.
Visitors to Znojmo should not leave the region without stopping at glamourous Vranov Castle, in Vranov nad Dyji about 20 kilometers west of the city. Even the most skeptical seasoned traveler will be startled on entering the vividly colored Hall of Ancestors. A golden chariot soars across the ceiling in a mural above 12 statues of members of the Althan family, which inhabited the castle for many years.
Tours of Vranov take just under an hour, so you can view the artwork and architecture representing Gothic, Romantic and Baroque styles with plenty of time to be back in the embrace of sleepy Znojmo for dinner.
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