1 – The Borderguards’ Path
This instructional path is based on the history of the southwestern Czech border defence. There are many dramatic human fates connected with Kašperské Hory area because of the unpleasant conditions for life in the borderland. Each border is highly important for its country – it defines the sovereignty of the country. That`s why it marked the fates of the local inhabitans there.
The path goes through the wonderful nature of the Šumava mountains. You will go along one of the light fortification line from the 1930’s. You will learn about the border fortification against the threat of fascism, about the interior equipment and about the soldiers’ feelings inside the bunkers. You will acquaint yourselves with their resolution face to face with the threat of attack.
But the border goes here through more than one millennium. Previously, the Celts had mined here a rare and precious metal – the gold. The most famous Bohemian king, Charles IV., supported the importance of this region – he had the Kašperk castle built. The purpose of the castle was to protect the gold mines and so called Gold path, but mainly to protect the old frontier between Bohemia and Bavaria. And what is the frontier if there is no smuggling on it?
The shifts of the border’s importance are interesting. For example the refugees had been running away from the Nazi Germany to the democratic Czechoslovakia during the 1930s. There were some fellows who had managed to break through a very sharply guarded frontier (The Iron Curtain) and they had escaped from the Communist Czechoslovakia to the West Germany between 1948 and 1989 .
The irony of fate had trifled cruelly with the bunkers built against Hitler. All of them had to be handed in to Nazis /in an undamaged condition/ according to the Munich conference. The German army made the training on them – the soldiers were learning how to conquer the fortification systems in Europe. How might the soldiers, the labourers and the architects of these bunkers have felt?
But stop speculating for now and let’s follow a track of the frontier guard. Maybe, we will partly understand...
The path goes through the wonderful nature of the Šumava mountains. You will go along one of the light fortification line from the 1930’s. You will learn about the border fortification against the threat of fascism, about the interior equipment and about the soldiers’ feelings inside the bunkers. You will acquaint yourselves with their resolution face to face with the threat of attack.
But the border goes here through more than one millennium. Previously, the Celts had mined here a rare and precious metal – the gold. The most famous Bohemian king, Charles IV., supported the importance of this region – he had the Kašperk castle built. The purpose of the castle was to protect the gold mines and so called Gold path, but mainly to protect the old frontier between Bohemia and Bavaria. And what is the frontier if there is no smuggling on it?
The shifts of the border’s importance are interesting. For example the refugees had been running away from the Nazi Germany to the democratic Czechoslovakia during the 1930s. There were some fellows who had managed to break through a very sharply guarded frontier (The Iron Curtain) and they had escaped from the Communist Czechoslovakia to the West Germany between 1948 and 1989 .
The irony of fate had trifled cruelly with the bunkers built against Hitler. All of them had to be handed in to Nazis /in an undamaged condition/ according to the Munich conference. The German army made the training on them – the soldiers were learning how to conquer the fortification systems in Europe. How might the soldiers, the labourers and the architects of these bunkers have felt?
But stop speculating for now and let’s follow a track of the frontier guard. Maybe, we will partly understand...