<< Our Photo Pages >> Hlízová Tower Zvíkov - Carving in Czech Republic in Bohemia
Submitted by ladrin on Monday, 26 March 2018 Page Views: 1189
Multi-periodSite Name: Hlízová Tower Zvíkov Alternative Name: Markomanka, Black TowerCountry: Czech Republic Region: Bohemia Type: Carving
Nearest Town: Milevsko Nearest Village: Zvíkovské Podhradí
Latitude: 49.438700N Longitude: 14.192391E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Sculptured Stone in Bohemia
Amazing gothic castle Zvíkov was built on the narrow promontory where the rivers Vltava and Otava meets. The castle was once built high above the river water. But that had dramatically changed in the middle of the 20th century when large damm of Orlík was constructed about 10km down the river and a vast lake suddenly surrounded the castle. To be honest...unlike other giant communist projects...I like this one. An absolutely exceptional scenery arised.
The castle stands in the place of prehistoric La Tène period fortress, which is obvious, because of its natural defensive position. Most archeological findings comes rom the 200-100 BC. It is also possible that not only the fortress but a large oppidum used to be here.
The oldest part of the castle is so called Hlízová tower. This massive 20m tall prismatic building is also known as a "Black tower" or "Markomanka". The origin of this tower is a quite mystery. Some assume that it is much older then the rest of the castle, which was built in 13st. The name "Black tower" is associated to the dark colour of the stones from which the tower is built. And this is the only building where such stones were used. Also the style of construction does not fit into the overall concept of the pure gothic castle somehow.
Theories say that Black tower comes from time, when the Romans were active in this region (about 2th AD) and used to construct such towers in cooperation with their Germanic allies. And that can be the clue for the next name "Markomanka". Tower was known under this name since medieval at least and the name is obviously related to the old germanic tribe "Marcomanni".
But the most mystery of the Black tower are enigmatic symbols carved into granite blocks. These characters can not be easily distinguished, but it seems that there is a 36 different types and some are repeated. Some experts believes that it is identification mark of medieval stonecutters. On the other hand there are no similar stonecutters marks preserved anywhere else. And so the Black tower keeps its secret.
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