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Vrchotovy Janovice

Coordinates: 49°40′0″N 14°34′40″E / 49.66667°N 14.57778°E / 49.66667; 14.57778
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Vrchotovy Janovice
Market town
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Interactive map of Vrchotovy Janovice
Coordinates: 49°40′0″N 14°34′40″E / 49.66667°N 14.57778°E / 49.66667; 14.57778
CountryFile:Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Czech Republic
RegionCentral Bohemian
DistrictBenešov
First documented1243
Area
 • Total
23.08 km2 (8.91 sq mi)
Elevation
[1]
427 m (1,401 ft)
Population
 (2026-01-01)[2]
 • Total
1,079
 • Density46.75/km2 (121.1/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
257 53
Websitewww.vrchotovyjanovice.eu

Vrchotovy Janovice is a market town in Benešov District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,100 inhabitants.

The town is known for Vrchotovy Janovice Castle, the former home of arts patron Sidonie Nádherná of Borutín and a meeting place for prominent Central European writers and artists. During World War II, the municipality was incorporated into an SS training area, its inhabitants were displaced, and three detention facilities were established there, including a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Administrative division

Vrchotovy Janovice consists of ten municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):[3]

  • Vrchotovy Janovice (799)
  • Braštice (17)
  • Hůrka (1)
  • Libohošť (18)
  • Manělovice (7)
  • Mrvice (32)
  • Rudoltice (23)
  • Šebáňovice (51)
  • Sedlečko (27)
  • Velká Lhota (51)

The municipal parts form four cadastral territories: Vrchotovy Janovice, Manělovice, Rudoltice u Vrchotových Janovic and Šebáňovice.[4] Strnadice was also a municipal part from 1 September 1971 until 30 June 1990.[5]

The municipality's coat of arms was granted on 1 February 1994, and its flag on 5 April 2017.[6]

Etymology

The name Janovice is interpreted as “the village of Jan’s people”, preserving the personal name of its presumed founder. The attribute Vrchotovy was added in the 15th century and came from the subsequent owners, the Vrchota of Vrchotice family.[7][4]

Geography

Vrchotovy Janovice is located about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southwest of Benešov and 45 km (28 mi) south of Prague. It lies in the Benešov Uplands. The settlement stands at 427 m (1,401 ft) above sea level.[1] The highest point in the municipal territory is the hill Ohraženka at 577 m (1,893 ft).[8] The territory is rich in fishponds, including Zrcadlo and Libohošťský rybník.[9]

History

Origins and estate history

The settlement probably originated around a Romanesque private church and lightly fortified manor in the final third of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century. The first securely documented mention is from 1243, when Konrád of Janovice witnessed a charter of King Wenceslaus I. Herbard of Janovice probably established the market settlement, sponsored the Gothic rebuilding of the church and built the small water castle shortly before the middle of the 14th century. The castle contained a three-room palace and two residential towers protected by a moat; substantial portions survive within the present building.[10]

The lords of Janovice transferred their principal residence to Vysoký Chlumec around 1385, and the ancestral castle briefly passed to the Sternberg family around the beginning of the 15th century. The Vrchota of Vrchotice family subsequently acquired it and their name became part of the town's name. The lords of Říčany bought the estate before 1541 and converted the fortress into a Renaissance residence between 1579 and 1589. After briefly belonging to Hynek of Roupov, Jan Prostiborský of Vrtba bought the estate in 1594. The Vrtba family rebuilt the castle in the late Baroque and Rococo styles between 1750 and 1766.[11] In 1787, at their request, Emperor Joseph II granted the settlement the right to hold annual cattle markets.[12][4] The estate passed by inheritance to Count František Josef Vratislav of Mitrovice in 1807. His descendants gave the castle its present Neo-Gothic form in 1857–1858 before the indebted estate was sold to Baron Karel Ludvík Nádherný of Borutín in 1879.[12][13]

Nádherná family and cultural life

Baroness Sidonie Nádherná of Borutín (1885–1950), who was born at the castle, became its last private owner. A patron of literature and art, she made the castle a meeting place for writers, artists, politicians and intellectuals including Rainer Maria Rilke, Karl Kraus, Max Švabinský, Karel Čapek, Adolf Loos, Viktor Stretti, Antonín Podlaha [cs], Dora Pejačević, Anna Masaryková [cs], Camillo Schneider and Mechtilde Lichnowsky.[14][12][15][4] Rilke met Nádherná in 1906 at Auguste Rodin's studio in Meudon. He first visited the castle in November 1907 and returned in 1910 for a three-week stay, during which he wrote several poems inspired by the surrounding landscape; he and Nádherná corresponded until his death. Kraus first visited in November 1913 and returned regularly for more than twenty years, often writing at a stone table in the park. The park became a central motif of his lyric poetry.[12][16]

Second World War

During World War II, the Nazis confiscated the Nádherná estate and Vrchotovy Janovice was incorporated into the SS training area in Bohemia. Its inhabitants were displaced in the fifth and final phase of the area's evacuation, which ended on 1 April 1944; Nádherná left at the end of March.[17] The castle was used as a military headquarters and barracks, and from July 1944 the town housed a school for tank destroyers and assault guns. Three detention facilities were established: a punitive “education” camp for people who had fled forced-labour assignments in Germany; a camp for people of partial Jewish ancestry and men who refused to divorce their Jewish wives; and a political-prisoner subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.[18]

The Flossenbürg subcamp began operating on 24 July 1944 and held about 200 male prisoners. Almost half were Russian, and more than 40 each were French and Polish. They were subjected to forced labour that included constructing a building for the SS assault-gun school, quarrying, unloading railway wagons, building a second platform at Čichovka station and repairing roads. After a typhus epidemic, the prisoners were moved to a farm near Křepenice. Violent mistreatment and executions during the evacuation march caused numerous deaths. At the end of April 1945, the remaining prisoners were transported through Prague towards České Budějovice; the survivors were liberated by Czech partisans near Kaplice on 8 May. Since 1982, a memorial has stood at Nový rybník on the site of the guards' former dog kennel.[19]

Postwar period

After the war, Soviet and then Czechoslovak troops used the castle. Nádherná was permitted to return in August 1946, but emigrated to England in 1949 and died there the following year. The castle was expropriated in 1950 and subsequently served as a textile warehouse and later as a district archive.[20][15]

The National Museum acquired the castle in 1957 after museum employee and writer Otto Janka advocated its preservation. Emergency work was followed by regular park maintenance from 1964, when the castle first opened to visitors with a Rilke memorial room. The present permanent exhibitions opened in stages in 1985, 1987 and 1992. Nádherná's remains were returned to Vrchotovy Janovice and interred in the family cemetery in 1999, and rehabilitation of the park towards its 1920s–1930s appearance began in 2001. The castle closed because of its poor structural condition in 2006 and reopened in June 2007 after a year-long reconstruction.[21][22][20][12] The status of market town was restored on 22 June 2007.[23]

Demographics

Transport

The I/18 road (the section from Příbram to Votice) passes south of the market town.

Vrchotovy Janovice is located on the regional railway line Olbramovice–Sedlčany.[26] The single-track line opened in 1894.[27]

Regional rail services connect the town with Benešov and Sedlčany.[28] Regional buses serve the market town, its municipal parts and nearby centres including Benešov and Votice.[29]

Education

The market town operates the combined Elementary School and Kindergarten Vrchotovy Janovice. The elementary school is based at house no. 95, while the kindergarten operates in the grounds of Vrchotovy Janovice Castle.[30][31]

The elementary-school building was extensively renovated in phases from 2017 to 2022.[32]

Community life

The local football club is TJ Sokol Vrchotovy Janovice. Its men's team competes in the Benešov district league system.[33] The club operates the municipally owned football ground, which has a natural-grass pitch.[34]

The local volunteer fire brigade, SDH Vrchotovy Janovice, was founded in 1886 and marked its 140th anniversary in 2026.[35]

Sights

The principal landmark is Vrchotovy Janovice Castle, surrounded by a 16.8-hectare (42-acre) landscape park.[36] Founded around 1350 as a Gothic water fortress, it was later rebuilt in the Renaissance style and transformed into a representative residence in the 18th century. An overall reconstruction in the mid-19th century gave it its present Neo-Gothic appearance.[22]

The castle houses permanent exhibitions on society in 19th-century Bohemia, the literary figures Rainer Maria Rilke and Karl Kraus and their relationship with Vrchotovy Janovice, and bell founding in Bohemia and Moravia.[22]

A formal ornamental garden with paths and water basins was created in the late 1820s. The park incorporates a historic water system whose origins include the reservoir that supplied the medieval castle moat. During the major landscaping of 1845–1846, Count Josef Xaver Vratislav of Mitrovice and gardener Josef Lacovský had the moat cleared and refilled, created terraces and an extensive path network, and planted thousands of trees and shrubs, establishing the basic layout of the present English landscape park.[36] After purchasing the estate in 1879, Karel Nádherný developed the park using designs by landscape architect Eduard Fiala [de]; more extensive castle alterations proposed by Josef Mocker were only partly realized.[37]

Its present form was shaped further by the siblings Karel and Sidonie Nádherný, particularly through their collaboration with the landscape architect and botanist Camillo Schneider, who visited once or twice annually from 1922 to 1932, and Count Herbert Schaffgotsch, who advised on alpine plants from 1929 to 1932. The family cemetery was established in the park in 1927. After a windstorm felled about 200 trees in 1929, roughly 4,000 trees were planted by 1934.[36] Around the late 1930s and early 1940s, the park contained almost 800 species, cultivars and hybrids of herbaceous plants and nearly 500 woody taxa.[38] Sidonie's gardening diary records plants obtained from 48 locations across Europe between 1922 and 1929 and has provided evidence for the park's historical plantings. Planting restoration based on the diary was underway by 2021.[39][40]

Another principal landmark is the Church of Saint Martin [cs]. It was built in the Romanesque style at the end of the 12th century. In the 14th century, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style, and Neo-Gothic modifications were made in the 19th century. Medieval records identify a parish priest serving at Janovice from 1356 and document endowed altars dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Wenceslaus in the late 14th century.[41] Notable surviving elements include a richly profiled Gothic portal, rib vaulting in the chancel and the original stone sanctuary. The protected complex also encompasses the cemetery wall, mortuary, stone crosses and historic gravestones.[4][42]

Other protected monuments in the municipality are the rectory (house no. 98), a rural farmstead (no. 2) in Rudoltice, a statue of Saint John of Nepomuk in Hůrka and a stone road bridge southeast of the castle park.[43] The two-arched bridge bears a sandstone relief of the Vrtba family arms dated 1717.[44]

Several marked hiking and cycling routes cross the municipality. The educational trail “In the Footsteps of Sidonie Nádherná”, established in 2007, is an approximately 8.3 km (5.2 mi) circuit with seven stops. It passes through Slavkov and Podolí towards neighbouring Olbramovice and presents Nádherná, members of her cultural circle, regional history and natural features.[45]

Notable people

Further reading

  • Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  • Brych, Vladimír; Fiedlerová, Ludmila; Fleková, Klára (2022). Vrchotovy Janovice. Hmotná kultura šlechtického sídla od středověku do současnosti (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. ISBN 978-80-7036-723-0.
  • Janka, Otto; Turková, Helga (1985). Rilke & Kraus & Vrchotovy Janovice (in čeština). Prague: National Museum.
  • Bažant, Andrej (2006). Místo jako součást literatury – zámek ve Vrchotových Janovicích. Pokus o literárně-antropologickou studii se zhodnocením dosavadních interpretací (Master's thesis) (in čeština). Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Vrchotovy Janovice (okres Benešov)" (in čeština). Regional Information Service. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  2. ↑ "Population in municipalities as at 1. 1". DataStat. Czech Statistical Office. 2026-05-18.
  3. ↑ "Public Census 2021 – basic data". Public Database (in čeština). Czech Statistical Office. 2022.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "O Vrchotových Janovicích" (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  5. ↑ Historický lexikon obcí České republiky 1869–2011. Díl IV. Abecední přehled obcí a částí obcí (PDF). Prague: Czech Statistical Office. 2015-12-21. p. 541.
  6. ↑ "Vrchotovy Janovice: udělené symboly" (in čeština). Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  7. ↑ Brych, Vladimír; Fiedlerová, Ludmila; Fleková, Klára (2022). Vrchotovy Janovice. Hmotná kultura šlechtického sídla od středověku do současnosti (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. p. 6. ISBN 978-80-7036-723-0.
  8. ↑ Drábek, Jiří (2017). Kostel Všech svatých v Olbramovicích (PDF) (Thesis) (in čeština). University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
  9. ↑ "Územní plán Vrchotovy Janovice" (PDF) (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  10. ↑ Brych, Vladimír; Fiedlerová, Ludmila; Fleková, Klára (2022). Vrchotovy Janovice. Hmotná kultura šlechtického sídla od středověku do současnosti (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-80-7036-723-0.
  11. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. pp. 5–9. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Valden, Milan (2023-07-18). "Vrchotovy Janovice: Sidonie, Rilke a Kraus". H7O (in čeština). Host. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  13. ↑ "Vrchotovy Janovice (Česko)" (in čeština). Středočeská vědecká knihovna v Kladně. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  14. ↑ "Society in 19th century in Bohemia and Rilke, Kraus and Vrchotovy Janovice". National Museum. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Nádherná z Borutína, Sidonie, 1885–1950" (in čeština). Středočeská vědecká knihovna v Kladně. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  16. ↑ Bažant, Andrej (2006). Místo jako součást literatury – zámek ve Vrchotových Janovicích. Pokus o literárně-antropologickou studii se zhodnocením dosavadních interpretací (Master's thesis) (in čeština). Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts. pp. 29–31, 43–44.
  17. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. p. 14. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  18. ↑ "Předdvoří" (in čeština). National Museum. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  19. ↑ "Janowitz (Vrchotovy Janovice) Subcamp". Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Národní muzeum převzalo pozemky ve Vrchotových Janovicích" (in čeština). Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  21. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "Zámek Vrchotovy Janovice" (in čeština). National Museum. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  23. ↑ "Povinně zveřejňované informace" (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  24. ↑ "Historický lexikon obcí České republiky 1869–2011" (in čeština). Czech Statistical Office. 2015-12-21.
  25. ↑ "Population Census 2021: Population by sex". Public Database. Czech Statistical Office. 2021-03-27.
  26. ↑ "Železniční stanice Vrchotovy Janovice" (in čeština). České dráhy. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  27. ↑ Annual Report 2014 (Report) (in čeština). Railway Infrastructure Administration. 2015.
  28. ↑ "Line S98". Prague Integrated Transport. 2026-07-01. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  29. ↑ "Line 564". Prague Integrated Transport. 2026-07-01. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  30. ↑ "Kontaktní informace" (in čeština). Základní škola a Mateřská škola Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  31. ↑ "O škole" (in čeština). Základní škola a Mateřská škola Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  32. ↑ "Závěrečný účet městyse Vrchotovy Janovice za rok 2022" (PDF) (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  33. ↑ "9. liga sk. A – III. třída sk. A" (in čeština). Football Association of the Czech Republic. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  34. ↑ "Fotbalové hřiště TJ Sokol Vrchotovy Janovice" (in čeština). Czech Sports Union. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  35. ↑ "Oslavy 140 let SDH Vrchotovy Janovice" (PDF). Vrchotojanovický (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. June 2026. p. 6. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Střítecká, Kristýna (2017). Studie obnovy historické zahrady Vrchotovy Janovice (PDF) (Master's thesis) (in čeština). Lednice: Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Horticulture. pp. 16, 19–23.
  37. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. pp. 9–12. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  38. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2023). Zámecký park Vrchotovy Janovice. Ostrov v čase (in čeština). Prague: National Museum. p. 13. ISBN 978-80-7036-802-2.
  39. ↑ Hájková, Věra (2021-09-26). "Zámecký park ve Vrchotových Janovicích obnovují podle historického zápisníku Sidonie Nádherné". iROZHLAS (in čeština). Czech Radio. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  40. ↑ Fiedlerová, Ludmila (2022). "Do you know the park in Vrchotovy Janovice?". Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series. 191: 39–64. doi:10.37520/jnmpnhs.2022.005.
  41. ↑ Podlaha, Antonín (1912). "Janovice (Janovice Vrchotovy), fara". Posvátná místa království českého (in čeština). Vol. VI. Prague: Dědictví sv. Jana Nepomuckého. pp. 111–112.
  42. ↑ "Kostel sv. Martina" (in čeština). National Heritage Institute. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  43. ↑ "Územní plán Vrchotovy Janovice – změna č. 2" (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. 2024. pp. 4–5. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  44. ↑ "Kamenný mostek" (in čeština). Atlas české architektury. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  45. ↑ "Po stopách Sidonie Nádherné" (PDF) (in čeština). Městys Vrchotovy Janovice. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
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