2 – Železná Ruda
Mining grows and spreads across Hojsova Stráž to Hamry, where crushers and ironworks are being built. Although there were crushers and ironworks in Hamry in 1690 already, the ore was imported from mines in Eisenstein. The original hammermills used to be in places called Einöde (Wasteland, beim Lindl), today’s Hamry no. 46. Later sources seem to suggest that Czech settlers only took part in agricultural activities, while industries and crafts were being taken care of by German settlers, which laid the foundations for the Germanisation of the whole area.
Between 1429 and 1440, the free village of Hamry was pledged in total nine times and each time to the benefit to the crown. A couple of times, the yeomen had to pay out themselves in order to say subordinate only to the crown and outside of the influence of the gentry. For this, they needed a lot of money, so they multiplied the number of both hammermills and mineshafts and began to build glassworks. This brought in more settlers, likewise of German nationality.
In 1429, the village of Hamry was made out of several farmsteads and it was a seat of one of the free rychtas. The village became famous for its hammermills as its name might suggest. They were small smithies designed to process iron which used hydro energy to do it. They usually used charcoal from the charcoal kilns in the area as fuel. The Eisenstrass rychta gained independence from the Hamry one in 1630. It was named after a road, which passed through the area and was used to transport iron ore to Hamry and Zelená Lhota. The name was also adopted by the largest village in the rychta. During the course of the 16th century, more settlers came into the area. But their motivation was not to found agricultural settlements (unfavourable climate meant that the yield was barely enough to sustain them), but glassworks and ironworks, the latter especially around Úhlava. There were enough rough materials in Šumava for these enterprises, both iron ore and wood. The area of today’s Hojsova Stráž is first mentioned in relation to iron production.
The first hammerman in the Úhlava valley, which is known to us by name, was Adam. He built a hammermill in Železná Lhota in 1525. After exhausting the iron ore deposits in his immediate area, he began to import it from Železná Ruda, which was 13 km away. The road used to transport the ore will be called the iron road, Eisenstrasse. Later on, it also gives name to today’s Hojsova Stráž.
Other famous blacksmiths were members of the Denkscherz family, František Denkscherz ran Waffenhamr (Hammerschmiedgütl) no. 19, which he bought from Zelzerhof. In 1872 he sells it to František and Marie Anna Zellner and buys the Wassergürtl no. 16, which stood slightly further away, and where he continued his craft until 1882. One of his most famous pieces of work is a handmade, richly decorated cross, which used to stand by a wayside chapel next to Zelzer’s inn and is today in the Hojsova Stráž church. He also made innumerable crosses for the graves at the local graveyard. Blacksmith Denkscherz displayed his work at an Anniversary exhibition in Prague in 1891. The last blacksmith in the family was Ferdinand Denkscherz. He used to work in the Městiště hammermill until the 1960s.
As we already know, in 1525, the blacksmith Adam founded a hammermill to produce iron in Zelená Lhota. He was definitely not the first. We have information of these activities from even hundred years prior to that. Small local deposits were used for the hammermill’s needs. These deposits were likely already relatively exhausted by the 16th century, so Adam had to look for other sources. At the same time, he also builds an iron-smelting forge in Železná Ruda around which he began to mine for easily smelted ore (limonite). He desided to import it to his hammermill in Zelená Lhota. So, a road is created to make this possible, called Eisenstrasse in German. It led from Železná Ruda through the Špičák saddle and Brčálník, roughly following the route of today’s road to Nýrsko.
Alongside it were other local deposits of iron ore, especially in the area of today’s Hojsova Stráž. According to some reports, a small ironworks was founded here in 1575. It is the first historic record of any kind of settlement in this area.
The time of iron production boom ends towards the end of the 16th century. The reason was probably the problematic transport of the raw material from the Železná Ruda basin, which fell under Bavarian rule in 1579.
We can only guess as to when exactly the Železná Ruda area began to process its own ore. In 1581, Jiří of Gutštejn writes in one of his reports, that there are three-fathom trees growing by the Hamry farmstead, from which we can assume that they are about 300 years old. If we follow this assumption, we can trace the beginnings of iron processing in this area back to the 13th century. The creation and functioning of these ironworks can be related to the building of the royal town of Klatovy. More reports from the Nýsko region come from 1422 and 1461, when two ironworks are said to operate here (in 1461, during the sale of the Pajrek castle, an ironworks and a mill in Zadní Lhoty is mentioned). In 1565, a visitation committee (appointed by archduke Ferdinand) goes around King’s Forest and finds signs of iron production in the Úhlava valley by Nýrsko. Since time immemorial, there have been two hammermills below the Pajrek castle. One was by the Hamry farmstead, another on the opposite side of the Úhlava bank. In the Železná Ruda basin, the committee finds places with slag after former ironworks. The slag was then still used for smelting by Konrád Geisler. Josef Blau dated the beginnings of the local ironworks into the 12th century and tied it, likely incorrectly, to the counts of the house of Bogen. In fact, their creation can be proved only the following century and is related to the growing demand for quality steel by the growing towns, but also the the development of agricultural production. Long-term border disputes over the Železná Ruda basin led to the area becoming deserted for almost two centuries.
Ironworks are documented to have been below the Pajrek castle and by Zelená Lhota (Grün). They were founded by a certain Adam who imported the ore for them from around Železná Ruda, which was approximately 20 km away. Adam made so-called rod iron, which was meant for nailers and tack makers. Higher quality pole or sheet iron was also made. Both Adam’s ironworks could weekly make over 10q of these products. They were sold in the Klatovy area, but there were also attempts to expand to the Bavarian market. The ironworks were running from 1525 until the end of the 16th century. More ironworks stood by Hojsova Stráž.
At some point before the year 1565, iron production was renewed by a Passau hammerman Konrád Geisler. He was most likely drawn to the area by the name Eisenstein. According to the above-mentioned visitation committee, Geisler smelted ore from the local limonite and siderite to which he added slag from the two former hammermills. The iron smelted in a primitive smelter was then transported to ironworks in Datelov (Todlau) and Zelená Lhota. The hammermill in Datelov is already mentioned in the first half of the 16th century. It also processed slag from the two former hammermills. From the Datelov hammermill, Adam remitted to the owners of the Dešenice estate, Tristram of Předenice and Jiří Gutštejn, 5 Bohemian hundredweights (one hundredweight = 61,68 kg) of wrought iron annually. They had a ten-year contract. In Zelená Lhota, Adam was helped by Schmedwolfl. Weekly, Adam’s two hammermills were able to produce around 20 hundredweights of rod, pol or sheet iron or products such as shovels and saws.
In 1654, there are reports of a hammerman working in Zelená Lhota. The revival of iron only comes in the second half of the 17th century. After the Thirty-Years War, ironworks was build again in Zelená Lhota. It had two high furnaces (used in Boheia since the early 17th century) and a refining hammermill (where the iron was rid of carbon). In 1681, it was already in fully operational. During this year only, there are three children being christened from this ironworks. Insufficient supply of quality ore greatly limited production around 1692 and only one hammermill remained operational. The ironworks in Zelená Lhota was last mentioned in May of the previous year. The reasons for its end can be looked for in the decline in the iron boom but also in the fact that ore had to be imported from as far away as Trhanov. In 1721, the furnaces were still standing, and the refining hammermill was most likely still operational in 1724. The owner of the Bystřice estate considered buying pig iron from the local hammermill at that time. The description of the Bysřice estate from 1729 mentions two neglected high furnaces with no supplies of ore in Zelená Lhota. The furnaces stood above the village and are called upper and lower. Still maintained are the two refining hammermills, stamping mills, a charcoal shed, and a forge for re-smelting slag. Also mentioned are stores of wrought iron, shovels, cast iron cauldrons, and hundreds of fathoms of wood for charcoal. The supplies were valued at 1605 golden pieces. Near the ironworks stood a house, where the shift master used to live. Then there were a couple more houses for the workers. In 1758, the ironworks, hammermill and shift house are all in ruins.
In 1789, Franz Xaver Zirkl from Klatovy asked the owner of the Bysřice estate, count Palm, to revive iron ore mining and processing. He asked for a permit to construct a high furnace, two pole hammermills, one rod hammermill and to mine iron ore at Kostelní (Church) hill. The high furnace was supposed to stand in the village behind the inn, the hammermills by the forest and the rod hammermill at the end of the village. Zirkl planned to get charcoal from the yeomen on the Bystřice estate and other surrounding estates. He promised that he would buy their beer and pay a tithe in either money or iron. He also promised to sell iron cheaper for the common good. On top of that, he claimed that the building of the ironworks will help the poor and local agricultural workers. He secured his wood supply by buying a section of a forest from Josef and Františka Lenek for 40 549 golden pieces. He was given a construction permit in 1794 but the ironworks only began to function in 1796 and was named Palmsgrüner Eisenhammerwerk after the owner of the estate.
A year later the ironworks was valued at admirable 221 474 golden pieces. But it was most likely not that successful and in 1807 it was valued by the court at mere 180 000 golden pieces and sold to František Hornof from Prague a year after that. He sold it to Jan Funfar and Vincent Wietz (who also bought house no. 74 in Hojsova Stráž) probably five years later. Probably only one hammermill was working at that time. Later (from 1816), the hammermill was only owned by Funfar and he managed to produce high quality steel in it. Between 1815 and 1816, he produced over 5 q. Wrought iron was transported all the way from Chodová Planá. Despite that, production ceased soon after. The hammermill was bought by Vilbald Pikart in 1824. In 1831, it passed onto his orphaned children. In 1832 it is leased out to Jan Burka. The owners continued to change, in 1837 the only employees are a master hammerman and his one apprentice. In 1867, the small hammermill is still mentioned. It was closed towards the endo the century as there are no mentions of it in 1895.
Northeast of Prenet, in the valley of the Jelenka stream stands a village called Městiště, mentioned in records since the 16th century. In the 18th century we can come across the German name Dorrstadt. The members of the Suchý family, who lived here since mid-17th century (they owned a mill), claim that the German names comes from their family (Suchý = dry; Dorrstadt = dry town; Dürre Stätte = dry place; Dorrhütte is however also the name for a hemp-kiln).
A kilometre southeast from the village stands a timbered hammermill from the middle of the 19th century. No. 5 with a workshop was running up until 1975. The owner Ferdinand Denkscherz (he was German, his wife was Czech and came from Jesení) made flanges, axes, hoes, ploughshares and other tools. It was the last hammermill with more than 20 employees around the year 1875. Today it is being put into its original state (only the shaft is iron, not wooden). Next to the hammermill later stood a military shooting range. In a land covered by trees, wood presented one of the main sources of making a living. One of the forgotten woodworking crafts is burning charcoal in charcoal kilns (Meiler). Charcoal then served as a heat source for blacksmiths in the surrounding hammermills. Ferdinand Denkscherz also built his own charcoal kilns. They usually used wood of deciduous trees or old conifers cut down in winter when they didn’t have sap yet. Charcoal was eventually replaced by hard coal and the former kilns are now but ovals in the landscape with growing vegetation in them.
Between 1429 and 1440, the free village of Hamry was pledged in total nine times and each time to the benefit to the crown. A couple of times, the yeomen had to pay out themselves in order to say subordinate only to the crown and outside of the influence of the gentry. For this, they needed a lot of money, so they multiplied the number of both hammermills and mineshafts and began to build glassworks. This brought in more settlers, likewise of German nationality.
In 1429, the village of Hamry was made out of several farmsteads and it was a seat of one of the free rychtas. The village became famous for its hammermills as its name might suggest. They were small smithies designed to process iron which used hydro energy to do it. They usually used charcoal from the charcoal kilns in the area as fuel. The Eisenstrass rychta gained independence from the Hamry one in 1630. It was named after a road, which passed through the area and was used to transport iron ore to Hamry and Zelená Lhota. The name was also adopted by the largest village in the rychta. During the course of the 16th century, more settlers came into the area. But their motivation was not to found agricultural settlements (unfavourable climate meant that the yield was barely enough to sustain them), but glassworks and ironworks, the latter especially around Úhlava. There were enough rough materials in Šumava for these enterprises, both iron ore and wood. The area of today’s Hojsova Stráž is first mentioned in relation to iron production.
The first hammerman in the Úhlava valley, which is known to us by name, was Adam. He built a hammermill in Železná Lhota in 1525. After exhausting the iron ore deposits in his immediate area, he began to import it from Železná Ruda, which was 13 km away. The road used to transport the ore will be called the iron road, Eisenstrasse. Later on, it also gives name to today’s Hojsova Stráž.
Other famous blacksmiths were members of the Denkscherz family, František Denkscherz ran Waffenhamr (Hammerschmiedgütl) no. 19, which he bought from Zelzerhof. In 1872 he sells it to František and Marie Anna Zellner and buys the Wassergürtl no. 16, which stood slightly further away, and where he continued his craft until 1882. One of his most famous pieces of work is a handmade, richly decorated cross, which used to stand by a wayside chapel next to Zelzer’s inn and is today in the Hojsova Stráž church. He also made innumerable crosses for the graves at the local graveyard. Blacksmith Denkscherz displayed his work at an Anniversary exhibition in Prague in 1891. The last blacksmith in the family was Ferdinand Denkscherz. He used to work in the Městiště hammermill until the 1960s.
As we already know, in 1525, the blacksmith Adam founded a hammermill to produce iron in Zelená Lhota. He was definitely not the first. We have information of these activities from even hundred years prior to that. Small local deposits were used for the hammermill’s needs. These deposits were likely already relatively exhausted by the 16th century, so Adam had to look for other sources. At the same time, he also builds an iron-smelting forge in Železná Ruda around which he began to mine for easily smelted ore (limonite). He desided to import it to his hammermill in Zelená Lhota. So, a road is created to make this possible, called Eisenstrasse in German. It led from Železná Ruda through the Špičák saddle and Brčálník, roughly following the route of today’s road to Nýrsko.
Alongside it were other local deposits of iron ore, especially in the area of today’s Hojsova Stráž. According to some reports, a small ironworks was founded here in 1575. It is the first historic record of any kind of settlement in this area.
The time of iron production boom ends towards the end of the 16th century. The reason was probably the problematic transport of the raw material from the Železná Ruda basin, which fell under Bavarian rule in 1579.
We can only guess as to when exactly the Železná Ruda area began to process its own ore. In 1581, Jiří of Gutštejn writes in one of his reports, that there are three-fathom trees growing by the Hamry farmstead, from which we can assume that they are about 300 years old. If we follow this assumption, we can trace the beginnings of iron processing in this area back to the 13th century. The creation and functioning of these ironworks can be related to the building of the royal town of Klatovy. More reports from the Nýsko region come from 1422 and 1461, when two ironworks are said to operate here (in 1461, during the sale of the Pajrek castle, an ironworks and a mill in Zadní Lhoty is mentioned). In 1565, a visitation committee (appointed by archduke Ferdinand) goes around King’s Forest and finds signs of iron production in the Úhlava valley by Nýrsko. Since time immemorial, there have been two hammermills below the Pajrek castle. One was by the Hamry farmstead, another on the opposite side of the Úhlava bank. In the Železná Ruda basin, the committee finds places with slag after former ironworks. The slag was then still used for smelting by Konrád Geisler. Josef Blau dated the beginnings of the local ironworks into the 12th century and tied it, likely incorrectly, to the counts of the house of Bogen. In fact, their creation can be proved only the following century and is related to the growing demand for quality steel by the growing towns, but also the the development of agricultural production. Long-term border disputes over the Železná Ruda basin led to the area becoming deserted for almost two centuries.
Ironworks are documented to have been below the Pajrek castle and by Zelená Lhota (Grün). They were founded by a certain Adam who imported the ore for them from around Železná Ruda, which was approximately 20 km away. Adam made so-called rod iron, which was meant for nailers and tack makers. Higher quality pole or sheet iron was also made. Both Adam’s ironworks could weekly make over 10q of these products. They were sold in the Klatovy area, but there were also attempts to expand to the Bavarian market. The ironworks were running from 1525 until the end of the 16th century. More ironworks stood by Hojsova Stráž.
At some point before the year 1565, iron production was renewed by a Passau hammerman Konrád Geisler. He was most likely drawn to the area by the name Eisenstein. According to the above-mentioned visitation committee, Geisler smelted ore from the local limonite and siderite to which he added slag from the two former hammermills. The iron smelted in a primitive smelter was then transported to ironworks in Datelov (Todlau) and Zelená Lhota. The hammermill in Datelov is already mentioned in the first half of the 16th century. It also processed slag from the two former hammermills. From the Datelov hammermill, Adam remitted to the owners of the Dešenice estate, Tristram of Předenice and Jiří Gutštejn, 5 Bohemian hundredweights (one hundredweight = 61,68 kg) of wrought iron annually. They had a ten-year contract. In Zelená Lhota, Adam was helped by Schmedwolfl. Weekly, Adam’s two hammermills were able to produce around 20 hundredweights of rod, pol or sheet iron or products such as shovels and saws.
In 1654, there are reports of a hammerman working in Zelená Lhota. The revival of iron only comes in the second half of the 17th century. After the Thirty-Years War, ironworks was build again in Zelená Lhota. It had two high furnaces (used in Boheia since the early 17th century) and a refining hammermill (where the iron was rid of carbon). In 1681, it was already in fully operational. During this year only, there are three children being christened from this ironworks. Insufficient supply of quality ore greatly limited production around 1692 and only one hammermill remained operational. The ironworks in Zelená Lhota was last mentioned in May of the previous year. The reasons for its end can be looked for in the decline in the iron boom but also in the fact that ore had to be imported from as far away as Trhanov. In 1721, the furnaces were still standing, and the refining hammermill was most likely still operational in 1724. The owner of the Bystřice estate considered buying pig iron from the local hammermill at that time. The description of the Bysřice estate from 1729 mentions two neglected high furnaces with no supplies of ore in Zelená Lhota. The furnaces stood above the village and are called upper and lower. Still maintained are the two refining hammermills, stamping mills, a charcoal shed, and a forge for re-smelting slag. Also mentioned are stores of wrought iron, shovels, cast iron cauldrons, and hundreds of fathoms of wood for charcoal. The supplies were valued at 1605 golden pieces. Near the ironworks stood a house, where the shift master used to live. Then there were a couple more houses for the workers. In 1758, the ironworks, hammermill and shift house are all in ruins.
In 1789, Franz Xaver Zirkl from Klatovy asked the owner of the Bysřice estate, count Palm, to revive iron ore mining and processing. He asked for a permit to construct a high furnace, two pole hammermills, one rod hammermill and to mine iron ore at Kostelní (Church) hill. The high furnace was supposed to stand in the village behind the inn, the hammermills by the forest and the rod hammermill at the end of the village. Zirkl planned to get charcoal from the yeomen on the Bystřice estate and other surrounding estates. He promised that he would buy their beer and pay a tithe in either money or iron. He also promised to sell iron cheaper for the common good. On top of that, he claimed that the building of the ironworks will help the poor and local agricultural workers. He secured his wood supply by buying a section of a forest from Josef and Františka Lenek for 40 549 golden pieces. He was given a construction permit in 1794 but the ironworks only began to function in 1796 and was named Palmsgrüner Eisenhammerwerk after the owner of the estate.
A year later the ironworks was valued at admirable 221 474 golden pieces. But it was most likely not that successful and in 1807 it was valued by the court at mere 180 000 golden pieces and sold to František Hornof from Prague a year after that. He sold it to Jan Funfar and Vincent Wietz (who also bought house no. 74 in Hojsova Stráž) probably five years later. Probably only one hammermill was working at that time. Later (from 1816), the hammermill was only owned by Funfar and he managed to produce high quality steel in it. Between 1815 and 1816, he produced over 5 q. Wrought iron was transported all the way from Chodová Planá. Despite that, production ceased soon after. The hammermill was bought by Vilbald Pikart in 1824. In 1831, it passed onto his orphaned children. In 1832 it is leased out to Jan Burka. The owners continued to change, in 1837 the only employees are a master hammerman and his one apprentice. In 1867, the small hammermill is still mentioned. It was closed towards the endo the century as there are no mentions of it in 1895.
Northeast of Prenet, in the valley of the Jelenka stream stands a village called Městiště, mentioned in records since the 16th century. In the 18th century we can come across the German name Dorrstadt. The members of the Suchý family, who lived here since mid-17th century (they owned a mill), claim that the German names comes from their family (Suchý = dry; Dorrstadt = dry town; Dürre Stätte = dry place; Dorrhütte is however also the name for a hemp-kiln).
A kilometre southeast from the village stands a timbered hammermill from the middle of the 19th century. No. 5 with a workshop was running up until 1975. The owner Ferdinand Denkscherz (he was German, his wife was Czech and came from Jesení) made flanges, axes, hoes, ploughshares and other tools. It was the last hammermill with more than 20 employees around the year 1875. Today it is being put into its original state (only the shaft is iron, not wooden). Next to the hammermill later stood a military shooting range. In a land covered by trees, wood presented one of the main sources of making a living. One of the forgotten woodworking crafts is burning charcoal in charcoal kilns (Meiler). Charcoal then served as a heat source for blacksmiths in the surrounding hammermills. Ferdinand Denkscherz also built his own charcoal kilns. They usually used wood of deciduous trees or old conifers cut down in winter when they didn’t have sap yet. Charcoal was eventually replaced by hard coal and the former kilns are now but ovals in the landscape with growing vegetation in them.