Putování městem České Budějovice 1 – Schinko Jan (2024)

The first part of "Wandering Through the City of České Budějovice," which readers have encountered in recent years through regular articles in the regional newspaper Deník. The author Jan Schinko has prepared a charming stroll through the city for us readers. We are set for a hundred stops, where he brings us closer to both the distant and more recent past of České Budějovice, which the famous Czech poet Jan Neruda compared to the Italian Florence among Czech cities. "Not for the charm of the surroundings, not for the monuments of all art, but for a certain undeniable loveliness of its own." Where does the genius loci of this city come from? The answer may lie in the history of the houses, nooks, streets, and alleys that we pass through daily, often in a hurry. Jan Schinko's book allows us to transport ourselves back in time and, thanks to the visual material, imagine what it was like when the Vltava flowed through a blind arm, when city gates stood tall, and Sokolský Island was not the only island near the city. The author does not only narrate the architectural history of the buildings but briefly introduces us to their owners, tenants, and sometimes even lets us peek into human destinies. Thanks to the encyclopedic approach of the individual chapters, the reader can easily navigate through the book. So let us embark on a journey to the past, when time flowed a little more slowly!