City Bzenec - Official website    

Bzenec is situated between Kyjov and Veselí nad Moravou on the road Nr 54 leading from Znojmo to the Slovak town Nové Město nad Váhom. It is only 1O km far from Strážnice, a town well-known to folklorists. The distance from Hodonín, the county town, is 24 km.

The geological and climatic conditions and the firts-rate vinicultural soil quality enable growing top-class cultivars of grapevine.  Some of them have even more distinctive quality features than in their country of origin, which is true especially of the Rhine Riesling; the production of Bzenec vineyards bears a one-hundred-year-old trademark “Bzenecká lipka“ (The little lime of Bzenec).  The red Burgundy of Bzenec – “Zlatý hrozen“ (The golden bunch of grapes) and the sparkling wine – “Chateau Bzenec“ are also well-known.

Also the local  fruit- and vegetable-growing tradition stretches back to the remote past. The local canning factories process especially pickled gherkins and vegetable salads. The first private canning company was established here in 1868. In the last couple of years, new business activities  started to grow and develop.  By the look of the fine sand and the number of shells, it is thought that the surroundings of Bzenec were the bottom of the sea in the remote past. Sand is won here to the present day, the quality of which is highly valued by the construction specialists.                                             

The area around Bzenec was settled as early as the primaeval times. The archeological discoveries from the Neolithic time, the Bronze and the Iron Age, the Roman time and the time of the migration of peoples point to this conclusion. During the period of the Great Moravian Empire, after the destruction of the town of Velehrad, Bzenec became the centre of Great Moravia for some time. As for old literary documents, Bzenec is first mentioned by chronicler Dětmar in connection with the capture of Businc castle by the Czech prince Oldřich in 1015. It is the first name that is recorded in Moravia after the 10th century. Around 1230 Bzenec became the centre of one district into which the Břeclav region was divided. But there is no explicit mention of the castle and the town of Bzenec until the royal charter of the king John of Luxembourg.

During the second half of the 14th century, the Jews started settling in Bzenec. Bzenec Jewish community was one of the oldest in Europe. They had their own spacious synagogue here.  However, the synagogue was pulled down in 1860 and a temple in oriental style was built in its place. A part of the Jewish quarter and the Jewish cemetery with the ceremonial hall from the half of the 19th century have been preserved up to the present day. In the cemetery, numerous tombstones of the baroque and classicist styles are found. A dominant feature of the town is a steep hill with the relics of the St Florian Chapel from 1703. It has a very troubled history.  In 1731, it was struck by lightning which set the roof on fire. It was rebuilt but in 1945 it was blown up by the German army in retreat. Already at the end of the 12th century, an old castle stood in this place, which fell victim to the Hussite wars at the beginning of the 15th century. It was called “The Old castle“ as opposed to the new yeoman fortress which was built with a double moat and a wall in the place where the present pseudo-Gothic castle is situated. This castle was originally of the Renaissance style, later it was pulled down and rebuilt in the baroque style. From the half of the 19the century, it maintains its present appearance.

In the castle gardens you can see perhaps the most notable landmarks of Bzenec – formerly two ancient lime trees, the oldest trees in Moravia. The trunk of the bigger lime was split into nine parts  by a stormy wind. According to the documents of 1604, it was then 500 years old. It stood there already in the time of the king Přemysl Otakar II. and it was rumoured that the emperor Rudolf II. of the Hapsburgs and his guards rested and amused themselves under this lime tree, today already nine hundred years old.

The mention of the first priest in Bzenec dates back to 1233. It was the court chaplain Absolon. The present John the Baptist Church of the early baroque style dates back to 1702. It is 13m wide, 45m long and it has 12m high vaulted ceiling. The parish church has always belonged to the Catholics. There are three religious communities in the town.

Every year in the middle of August,  visitors from the wide environs of Bzenec come for the Bzenec fair to the feast of the Virgin Mary. The Mass is held and also the traditional market takes place. The least known feast in Bzenec is the Bzenec Vintage Feast held in the middle of September incorporating  the craft fair, exhibitions, concerts, fairground attractions and a dance.

Bzenec is also renowned for the numerous wine cellars where people like to meet and chat over a glass of smooth wine. Many prominent personalities found the wine of Bzenec delicious. The poet Petr Bezruč, the painter Mikoláš Aleš, but also A. Rodin, S. Čech, F. X. Šalda and others broke their yourney in Bzenec. A lot of people have their own vineyards in Bzenec nowadays and they offer the hospitality of their wine cellars. Bzenec wine is sold in the whole country, it is exported to the neighbouring Germany, the Slovak Republic, it is offered in Holland and in France. Throughout centuries, the vine  has been grown, it has been thriving  and  ripening on the sunlit hillsides of the town that wishes all its visitors a very pleasant stay.

Description of the municipal coat of arms

It has developed gradually, that is  since the end of the 15th century. There appear components of the family Kropáč of Nevědomí, the noblemen of Žerotín.

Colours are not reliably recorded. On the blue escutcheon, there is a silver castle wall from square stones with an open gate in the middle. In the gate, there is an arm dressed in red, with a sword. On both sides of the gate there are battlements. Above the gate, the wall is higher and has battlements as well. Above the wall, there rise two silver square towers, each with two windows, with battlements and a red roof with golden poppyheads. Between the towers, above the battlements, there is a red plate on which there is a red two-tailed lion with a golden crown on its head rising above three silver hills.  Above the lion, there are three silver lilies, opened like a fan.

The present day

The town boasts improvements of the town centre, especially the rebuilt Square of Liberty with the predominant historic column dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a modern fountain.

Number of inhabitants: 4240.
Mayor: Pavel Čejka, vice-mayors: Mgr. Jenda Plšek, Ing. Marek Novoměstský.
Secretary: Ing. Roman Ostrézí.

Personalities

Robert Tvarůžek (1870 – 1941) – a swordsman, he wrote several books about swordsmanship, a writer, a journalist, a poet, a sportsman and a connoisseur of wine.

Josef Hanák (1873 – 1961) – a priest, 1903 – 1961 worked in Bzenec, the author of several books dealing with viticulture and the town of Bzenec.

Ctibor Šťastný (1884 – 1962) – a graphic artist, a teacher and one of the first leavers of the Czech “town school“ of Bzenec.

Topography

The town of Bzenec is situated in the centre of the region called “Moravian Slovakia“ in southern Moravia. The river Morava flows through the south of this region and the town borders here on the town of Strážnice, renowned for the International Folk Festival. To the east of Bzenec, there is the town of Veselí nad Moravou and to the west the town of Kyjov.  Important or dominant buildings of the town are the above mentioned ruin of St Florian Chapel, the Bzenec castle , John the Baptist Church which was finished in 1702 and the building of the former primary school.

TOWN EMBLEM                                         TOWN SEAL 

TOWN FLAG