Ostrozsko
UHERSKY OSTROH
Along the Morava River, there used to be an important ancient trade route connecting the Baltic Sea coast with the Mediterranean. On the route, rest stops were built – one of them here, in Uhersky Ostroh. These stops used to offer shelter, food and drink (and entertainment) to the passing traders and also served as convenient places for the actual trading and other business deals.
The town evolved from a small settlement (with a Czech name for “a stop”) on an island in the Morava River. In the 13th century the Czech king (Premysl Otakar II) had a fortified castle built here, as the region had the unfortunate lot of being close to the border with the Hungarian Kingdom. The vicinity of the Hungarian border gave several of the towns in border area part of their names: the Czech word “Uhersky” = Hungarian. And since the castle was situated on a meander spur in the Morava river bed, it derived its name from its location: “Ostroh” = (meander) spur. The castle was later rebuilt in a more leisure and less defensive Renaissance style.
At the end of the 19th century, the town of Uhersky Ostroh could boast of its own brewery, beet sugar mill, and even the first pencil factory in the whole Moravia. It was also the seat of the administrative district’s court of law. Some of the court cases inspired the stories in Zdenek Galuska’s phenomenally popular book of stories mixing regional realia, specific humor, traditional wisdom, and local dialect.
Contact
VIS Bílé Karpaty, o.p.s.
Marie Petrů, DiS.
Bartolomějské nám. 47? 698 01 Veselí nad Moravou
Tel.:518 322 545
e-mail:petru@bilekarpaty.cz
http://www.bilekarpaty.cz/vis
