Greetings and welcome to another fuzzy, little open thread bedecked with photographs from your very own werelynx! This week I’m sharing a few photos from a couple weeks ago when I was out exploring the world with my family and a few of our friends.
We started our vacation exploring the little town of Toužim.
The main architectural feature of the town is a large chateau, what remains of a sprawling, fortified complex whose foundations date back to the 1200s.
Over the centuries the complex had been fought over, rebuilt, reconstructed, expanded upon and reduced in size many times. Upper stories and towers were lopped off, cemeteries, gardens and half a dozen assorted buildings attached to the structure were lost. Recently a local group has taken an interest in the remaining buildings. On the day we were visiting they were holding a little market in the main courtyard. About a dozen colorful market stalls were set up offering locally produced wares and produce. Mrs the Werelynx bought new sets of oven mitts for home and the family place out in the country. #1 Son and I set off to explore one of the buildings that had been opened to the public. It was very much a “enter at your own risk” adventure, but while wandering through the rooms we met one of the people involved with the recent rescue efforts of this grand bit of architecture. He told us about how a group of local folk managed to get funding from the government for materials and how a surprisingly small group of passionate volunteers managed to put a new roof over the whole sprawling structure, how difficult it’s been to determine how and where best to allocate their supplies and something about the unfortunate compromises they occasionally had to make for the mere sake of safety. The first priority was stopping things from falling on people’s heads.
Later we were given a proper tour by another of the people involved with the rescue. She told us about the history of the site, the families who lived here and how it was eventually confiscated by the state after World War II because of the owner’s collaboration with the Nazis. It was used for various purposes after that, a post office occupied one portion, there was a school in another. General communist neglect fell into devastating ruin after the town unloaded the property for a symbolic sum to some foreigner who promised to rebuild it into a golf resort. After a couple decades of that promise floating in the wind that whistled through the broken windows and holes in the roof, the government tracked down the owner and bought it back from him for a not-so-symbolic price.
Thanks for stopping by.
This is an open thread.