Oblasti dochovaných strukturálně výrazných plužin v České republice

Zprávy památkové péče 2014, 74(1):34-49

Areas with preserved structurally significant fields in the Czech Republic

Karel Kuča

The article discusses a theme so far inadequately reflected upon in heritage care practice, the theme of structurally significant prehistoric fields (plužiny) in the Czech Republic. Surface exploration of areas using orthophotomaps have shown that there are 61 areas with extraordinarily well-preserved prehistoric fields that have been preserved in the country. Altogether these are 495 cadastral territories or parts thereof, of which 309 are in Bohemia, 130 in Moravia, and 56 in Silesia. These are mostly either linear or radial ground fields whose acreage was divided by massive boundary lines including their accompanying greenspace, and therefore escaped the land consolidation of the collectivization process of the 1950-70's. Radial fields were best preserved in the Moravian-Silesian area of the Jeseník Mountains and in the Czech foothills of the Krkonoše Mountains as well as in the eastern part of the Bohemian Highlands. Radial field areas can be found to a lesser degree in part of the Krušné (Ore) Mountains and especially in the Šumava Mountains, and in the Czech and Moravian parts of the Vysočina region. A very interesting group would be territories with irregular field divisions (block character), the occurrence of which is associated with the pre-locational period. Territories have been preserved in the area of the Cunkovský Ridge and part of the Šumava foothills, areas whose settlement is actually older than the colonization of the High Middle Ages in the 13th-14th centuries. There are also track and parcel type fields preserved in the Czech Republic, but these are usually just individual cases that are scattered in various peripheral areas of the country. All groups are briefly characterized in the text. The attached table gives a complete list. The article concludes with a reflection on the need for their systematic legal protection while it would be appropriate to proceed together with natural and landscape protection authorities and land offices. The table therefore notes cases in which a blanket protection has already been applied to an area of historic fields, for reasons of nature and landscape protection.