Nalžovské Hory
In 1769, Nalžovy became the property of the Taaff family. They, in the spirit of the time, decided to decorate the nearby Prašivica forest with a number of romantic objects. In addition to a replica of the ruins of the ancestral home in Ballymotte, Ireland, a gazebo and pond were built. Some rock formations were in turn modified into the form of animals or a dragon. Members of the Taaffe family also held important positions at the Viennese court. For example, Ludvík Taaffe was the first President of the Court of Justice and Minister of Finance. Eduard Taaffe was the prime minister of Austria for a total of six years. The Silver Mountains were founded in 1521. As early as 1530, they were elevated to a township with their own coat of arms, and in 1853 they were elevated to a city. The mining of metals, which began in 1521, was practically ended in 1541, when the mines were flooded. The definitive end of mining dates back to 1585.
The dominant feature of the Nalžovské Mountains is the church of St. Catherine. The church is also known for its baroque sculptures and great torments of God. The church was built in the years 1721 - 23, on the site of the original wooden church, which was already mentioned in 1534. There is a reconciliation cross from the 17th century near the church. In front of the church there is also a row of stone pillars with motifs of the Way of the Cross painted on metal.
The newly built building of the Šafránek School in Nalžovské Hory is named after an excellent local pedagogue. Journalist, writer and poet Ladislav Khas - Kaše, doctor Oldřich Hlaváč and conductor František Stupka spent his youth in Nalžovské Hory. Karel Klostermann went to the old school in Nalžovské Hory.
On the square stands a statue of St. Jan Nepomucký.
On September 24, 2008, the status of a city was restored to the village.
Source: Střípky Horažďovicka, published by AgAkcent s.r.o.
Interesting fact:
Nalžov cream cheese
This already completely forgotten original Czech cheese could certainly be a real rarity in our stores today. This is because it is a cheese very close to Camembert, or in our country Hermelín, whose surface mold is not snow-white, but on the contrary slightly pinkish to red. The production of this interesting cheese was introduced by Čeněk Charousek in 1897 at the Taaffe farm in Nalžovy in Šumava. The first Czech dairy professor dr. Otakar Laxa mentions the following production process in his cheesemaking textbook from 1924:
"Freshly milked milk is first cooled a little, salted, and the resulting curd is then poured into lined bags. After 12 hours, the bags are removed, transferred to a salting room, where the surface of the cheese is salted. The salted cheese is placed in a cellar (18-19°C ), where noble molds are widespread. The cheese first acquires a white growth on the surface, which later turns red, and even turns green in the high age of the cheese. Ripening takes about 14-21 days. The cheese presents cakes 10-11 cm in diameter, 2-3 cm tall and weighs 200g."
Historical sources state that in 1897 148,708 pieces of cheese were produced, but in 1914 already 522,518 pieces. In later times, however, proper molding was not taken into account.
As early as the early sixties of the last century, the production of Nalžovské cheese was described by another prominent Czech dairy professor, Doležálek, who himself devoted himself to the study of the noble fungus Penicillium nalgiovensis, under which the cheese acquired its specific appearance and bouquet. Professor Doležálek even looked for that mold on farms in the Nalžovské mountains, but was unsuccessful. This specific mold has completely disappeared from the natural environment of the manufactory at that time. For his studies, he obtained the said mold from the collections of noble cultures in France and the USA, he carried out many microbiological and biochemical tests, but it was no longer enough to restore the then famous cheese production.
Source: http://laktoscollection.cz/
A number of legends are connected to the Nalžovský Hory. You can read some of them here:
The rumor about Count Pötting
The piety of the owner of the Nalžov manor, Count Václav Maria Josef Pötting (1), was known throughout the region. He is said to have spent long hours praying in the church and walking in its surroundings. He also proved his piety by his actions. Around the church of St. Kateřiny in Stříbrné Horá (2) had statues of saints placed (3) and also had a beautiful castle chapel built. Church of St. Kateřiny stood on the site of old and very deep silver mines, and the inhabitants of Nalžov and Stříbrné Hory were convinced that on some holiday, when his ship would be crowded with people and they would still be standing in front of him in crowds, he would sink completely into the ground. Not even a monument will remain after the church, and in its place there will only be a deep pit. None of the people in the church will survive, and the collapsed strong walls of the church, which will fall into the hole, will cover their graves.
Count Pötting certainly knew this story, and perhaps that is why he did not want to be buried in the church crypt, like his ancestors, but in the cemetery. However, his son Václav Josef did not fulfill his wish and had his remains buried in the basement of the church. He soon sold the estate to František Xavera to Count Taaffe. And even the members of this family did not like the crypt, so they built a new family tomb with the chapel of St. Barbory (4) on the way to Hradešice.
However, not everyone was deterred. One late evening a group of grown children came up to the cemetery. Their conversation revolved around the subject of boys' bravery. And one of them began to boast: "I am not afraid and I would not be afraid even if I met Count Pötting in the cemetery." The others doubted his words. Some admonished him not to blaspheme, others encouraged him and wanted to make a bet that he would not go to the cemetery. The daredevil insisted and did not hesitate for a moment to make the bet. But there was a catch - who will go to the cemetery with him as a witness to his act? However, none of the group came forward. Someone therefore suggested that it would be enough for the others to pluck a rose flower from a grave in the cemetery and bring it to show them the next day. "Then we'll believe you," they said in unison.
The grown-up went to the cemetery. Birch trees, a white wall and a gate soon appeared. He avoided them. It was closed anyway. He knew of another way. He carefully climbed over the wall where it was collapsing and jumped down between the tombstones. He slowly weaved his way between the graves and every now and then he tripped over a stone or bump. The moon and stars were shrouded in dark clouds, so the only feeble light was the lantern he held in his hand. A bat flew over his head and a great horned owl could be heard hooting from the castle garden. A shadow crept across the grave, his shadow. He startled him a little, but he didn't want to give up his strange quest. After all, he saw red rosebuds a short distance in front of him, he bent down to one and wanted to pluck it. When at that moment a long church candle flared up beside the grave, its flame illuminating Count Pötting's unnaturally pale face. The boy was startled and had a stroke. In the morning they found him dead in the cemetery with a rose in his hand.
The rumor was first elaborated by Josef Biskup in three parts under the titles O hrábet Pötting, Růže ze hřbitov and Zamlekovský sledáci in the book From the Darkness of the Past I. - póvesti Klatovského kraje, Bezděkov 1936. Another rumor about the forfeiture of the church was captured in the Nalžov chronicle in the thirties of the 20th century regional researcher Karel Polák from Bezděkov u Klatov.
Comment:
1. Václav Maria Josef Pötting owned the Nalžov estate in the first half of the 18th century. In 1769, his son Václav Josef Nalžovy sold Františka Xaver to Count Taaffe, whose family remained here until 1937.
2. Church of St. Kateřiny - the original wooden church was built in 1534 as part of the emerging upper town of Stříbrné Hory near the entrances to individual shafts. It was surrounded by a wooden wall smeared with clay, behind which the cemetery was located. The local church did not have public rights, so all weddings, baptisms and funerals took place in the church in nearby Hradešice, which happened until 1772. The construction of the new church was started in 1722 by the then owner of the estate, Count Norbert Pötting (Václav Maria Josefa's father) and in in 1731 it was completed.
On April 1, 1952, the municipalities of Stříbrné Hory and Nalžovy were merged into one municipality called Nalžovské Hory.
3. These are statues of the evangelists, St. Peter and Paul. Statues of the Madonna, St. Wenceslas and St. Víta is at the crossroads on Sušice in the middle of the Halda forest park (at a place called u Svatých).
4. Today, there is a U Svatého Antonín restaurant near the chapel.
Pramen: Rumors from the mysterious and magical places of Pošumaví, published by the Local Action Group of Pošumaví in cooperation with MAS St. John of Nepomuk and the Aktivios Civic Association as part of the three-volume publication Legends from mysterious and magical places as part of the cooperation project "Let's revive monuments and legends from mysterious and magical places together", supported by the Rural Development Program of the Czech Republic, measure IV.2.1.
There lived in Nalžovy a manor of a manor's brewery who liked to look at the bottom of the tankard. He once stayed in Horaždovice. He had empty kegs loaded on his truck, and he also set off back at midnight with them. When he was passing by the pond of Zmrzlíkovce, suddenly fire barrels roll against him, just like the ones he was carrying from the city. The horses were scared and the wagon was all gone. In the morning they found him under an overturned truck. It was littered with the very barrels he had so diligently helped to empty.
Source: Ondřej Fibich, Prácheňský poklad, collection of legends, vintage
When the stone is saturated
Once there was a great crop failure and misery broke out among the people. Even Count Nalžovský himself did not know what to do at first. As he once remembered his native Scotland, the ancestral castle of Bally-Motte flashed before his eyes. And he decided to create a piece of his home in the Prašivici forest. There, he ordered mythical animals and an imitation of a lost castle to be created from the stones. Each stone raised meant a penny of wages for the starving peasants and a saving from death by starvation.
Source: Ondřej Fibich, Prácheňský poklad, collection of legends, vintage