Zprávy památkové péče 2016, 76(2):194-200

Folk architecture in the historic cultural landscape. Article on learning about the development of a residential aggregate through the example of the Plasko cultural heritage zone

Karel Foud

Plasy is located approximately 20 km north of Plzeň in a distinctive landscape with the deep Střela River canyon. Before the mid-12th century, a monastery was founded here by King Vladislav II that existed until the middle 1780s. In the first third of the 19th century, the estates of the abandoned monastery were purchased by the House of Metternich, who developed intense agricultural activity and supported the demographic and urban development of their seat. The Metternich family also shaped the surrounding landscape, transformed a large meadow into a natural landscape park, established a fishpond here, and landscaped the immediate vicinity of the monastery into a park. Even during the time of the Cistercians, the beginnings of a future village began to form east and south of the monastery which over the years transformed into a town. Plasy has preserved a remarkable collection of historic buildings which, together with the adjacent cultural landscape, supported the declaration of the landscape heritage zone of Plasko in 1996. This is immediately adjacent to several historical villages such as Babina, Horní Hradiště, and Žebnice where a number of remarkable examples of folk building culture can still be found similar to those in Plasy. The protection of the historical cultural landscape through the institute of landscape heritage zones is one of the forms of care not only about the area as such, but its landscape backdrop as well, defined here by the Střela River valley and the urban area of the surrounding communities. The quality characteristics of the former estate of the Plasy Cistercians are significant and deserve extensive protection. One of the possible forms of care is the extension of the existing landscape conservation zone of Plasko to include the adjacent communities and the Sechutice courtyard with its nearby provost in Mariánský Týnec

Keywords: Cistercian monastery; historic cultural landscapes; manor development in the 19th and 20th centuries; rural architecture of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries; landscape potential

Published: June 1, 2016  Show citation