Czech Out Your Ancestors
Menu
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • DNA
  • Czech Book Club
Menu

Travel Tuesday: A Walk through Příbor

Posted on 13 December 2016 by Kate Challis
A Walk Through Příbor
My ancestors were from the Hukvaldy Estate (Velkostatek Hukvaldy). An interesting and important city in this estate was Příbor (this also means silverware in Czech).
According to Czech Wikipedia, Příbor is the oldest town in the Nový Jičín district, dating back to 1251. It was an important administrative center. It burned down 3 times during the Thirty Years War: 1621 (by the Wallachs), 1626 (by the Danes), and 1643 (by the Swedes).
I am not exactly sure where I got this impression, but it seems to me that this is more of a “German” town than a “Czech” town. In the 1800’s-1850’s, it had a booming, bustling, healthy economy. Sigmund Freud was born there in 1856.
Sadly, the 20th century was really bad for this city. It was occupied in 1918, and later in 1938 it became occupied again by the Third Reich. It wasn’t liberated until 1945.
From 1951-1997 it had a Tatra (car company) plant.
When we were there, we observed that the economy there is really slow, which is really too bad. It was empty. But it wasn’t just because it was a holiday; it was empty in an unkempt, somewhat sad way. It was interesting to walk there, especially because it had some of the oldest Czech graves that I have ever seen. I felt really sad to see beautiful old buildings desecrated by graffiti, a completely empty village square, and buildings up for sale/rent on every corner. Maybe times will change for Příbor in the future, or maybe the life of a city is cyclical, and this is one of those down times. Or maybe it will die.
It was really interesting to contrast it with neighboring Mniší (Czech for “mouse”), which is, by contrast a tiny hamlet Příbor definitely feels like at one point it was a city. I think they have nearly identical populations today. But Mniší is very, very clean, and has none of the signs of decay that abound in Příbor. These places are literally 5-10 minutes away, but they could be in different countries, they feel so different.
We enjoyed it there, and I’m sure we will return many times because of my family’s connection to this place. Also, we really enjoyed our time there. The penzion (bed and breakfast) we stayed at (Penzion st Florian) was extremely quirky and fun. And we never did go to see Sigmund Freud’s birthplace, or Štramberk castle. We were too interested in seeing the cemetery, haha.
I want to go back sometime when the kostel with the beautiful stained glass is open (kostel sv. Kříže). We happened to be walking there at twilight, and when we looked up, the sun was shining through the window and suddenly we saw this beautiful, almost haunting, stained glass. But the entire kostel was shut up, like, boarded up. Příbor has two.

Look, a rainbow!
Nobody has opened these doors in a long time.
Look! It is magical!

It was empty!
We turned the corner and poof! This is what we saw!
Church schedule.
Meow!
This building is really old, and not safe.

The inside of the hotel we stayed at, Penzion st. Florian. Very quirky, and very fun.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Categories

Archives

  • March 2025
  • July 2021
  • January 2021
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
©2025 Czech Out Your Ancestors | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes