Náměstí Zachariáše z Hradce

The main square of Telč is a long plaza lined on both sides by burghers' houses that stand gable to gable, each with an arcaded ground floor and a tall decorative front, no two quite alike. Overlooked by a Renaissance château and set between fishponds in the Křižanov Highlands of Moravia, it is a remarkably well-conserved ensemble of Renaissance and Baroque houses, and the heart of a town inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.

The square takes its name from Zachariáš of Hradec (1526/7–1589), the humanist nobleman who presided over the town's golden age. The lords of Hradec had acquired Telč in 1339 and built a castle, fortifications and Gothic houses around the market place; a fire in 1386 destroyed the western half of the square together with the church and town hall. In the mid-16th century Zachariáš had the medieval castle rebuilt in Renaissance style, and the townspeople followed his lead, remodelling their Gothic houses with arcades and ornamented façades. Later generations reworked many of the gables, mostly in Baroque taste, so the houses share a common Renaissance form while each has a front of its own.

Several landmarks punctuate the long space. A Baroque Marian plague column, built in 1716–1720 by the sculptor David Lipart of Brtnice with money left in the will of a townswoman, Zuzana Hodová, carries figures of saints including John of Nepomuk, Roch and Sebastian. The Jesuit Church of the Name of Jesus, designed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi and completed in 1667, stands right in the row of houses. Among the individually protected houses on the square are the Telčský dům and the house known as U Šeniglů. The château, with its Chapel of All Saints and English-style park, has served as the setting of many Czech fairy-tale films, and Werner Herzog shot Woyzeck in the town in 1979.

Getting there

The square forms the centre of the old town of Telč, in the Vysočina Region, about 26 km south-west of Jihlava. Telč has two stations on the Havlíčkův Brod–Slavonice railway, and the I/23 road from Třebíč to Jindřichův Hradec passes through the town. Pardubice Airport (PED) is about 95 km away.