Kladruby nad Labem is a municipality and village in

Pardubice District Pardubice District () is a Okres, district in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the city of Pardubice. Administrative division Pardubice District is divided into three Districts of the Czech Republic#Municipalities with ex ...

in the

Pardubice Region Pardubice Region () is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located mainly in the eastern part of its historical region of Bohemia, with a small part in northwestern Moravia. It is named after its capital Pardubice. As an administrat ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It has about 600 inhabitants. It is known as the home of the

Kladruber The Kladruber (Czech ''Starokladrubský kůň'') is the oldest Czech horse breed and one of the world's oldest horse breeds. It is considered very rare. The chief breeder and the keeper of the studbook is the National Stud at Kladruby nad ...

horse breed. The village with the surrounding landscape is a UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Administrative division

Kladruby nad Labem consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Kladruby nad Labem (337) *Bílé Vchynice (117) *Kolesa (108) *Komárov (59)

Etymology

The name Kladruby is a common Czech name of settlements, derived from ''kláda'' (i.e. 'log') and ''rubat'' (i.e. 'to chop'). This name was used for settlements where

lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...

s lived.

Geography

Kladruby nad Labem is located about west of

Pardubice Pardubice (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Repub ...

. It lies in a flat landscape of the

East Elbe Table The East Elbe Table () is a plateau and a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the Hradec Králové, Pardubice and Central Bohemian region. The Elbe River flows through the territory, after which the plateau is nam ...

, in the

Polabí Polabí () is the traditional and informal name for a lowland region located mainly in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Etymology The name comes from Czech ''po Labi'', meaning "along the Elbe". The same linguistic construction g ...

region. The

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

River forms the southern municipal border. The stream of Strašovský potok flows through the municipality.

History

The first written mention of Kladruby nad Labem is from 1295, when it was a property of the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

monastery at

Litomyšl Litomyšl (; ) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. It is a former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see. Litomyšl is known for the château-type castle complex of the Lit ...

. During the second half of the 14th century, it came into the possession of the Cistercian

Sedlec Abbey Sedlec Abbey () is a former Cistercian monastery in Sedlec, part of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1142, it was the first Cistercian foundation in Bohemia. Along with the rest of the Kutná Hora town centre, it was listed as a UNESC ...

near

Kutná Hora Kutná Hora (; ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. The history of Kutná Hora is linked to silver mining, which made it a rich and rapidly developing town. The centre of Kutná Hora, i ...

. In 1500, the village was acquired by

Vilém II of Pernštejn Vilém II of Pernštejn ( or ''Wilhelm II. von Bernstein'', or ''Vilém z Pernštejna a na Helfštejně''; 1438 – 8 April 1521) was a Czech nobleman. He held the office of High Treasurer of Moravia from 1474 to 1487. He was High Marshall of B ...

, who already owned large parts of the

region. Kladruby remained in possession of the

Pernštejn family The House of Pernštejn () was one of the oldest and most important (uradel) families originating from Moravian nobility, along with the House of Rosenberg, that played an important role in the medieval history of Bohemian nobility from the 13th ...

until 1560, when it was purchased by Emperor Ferdinand I from his master of the horse, Jaroslav of Pernštejn. In 1579, Emperor

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the H ...

established the Imperial Stud at Kladruby, from which Spanish-blood horses were bred for ceremonial purposes. Following the fall of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

in 1918, the stud farm at Kladruby came under state administration.

Demographics

Transport

There are no railways on major roads running through the municipality.

Sights

On 6 July 2019, the Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem was inscribed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. The site includes the villages of Kladruby nad Labem and Selmice, the Imperial Stud Farm, and the surrounding farmsteads, gardens, pastures, and watercourses. The landscape was uniquely designed in the 16th and 17th centuries to effectively breed and train the Kladruber horses. In addition, the area demonstrates an outstanding example of the

ferme ornée The term ''ferme ornée'' as used in English garden history derives from Stephen Switzer's term for 'ornamental farm'. It describes a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming. During the eighteenth ce ...

style of landscape architecture made popular in the 18th century.

Notable people

* Gottlieb Polak (1883–1942), horse rider *

Zdeněk Matějček Zdeněk Matějček (16 August 1922 – 26 October 2004) was a Czech child psychologist, researcher, and childcare reformer, who pioneered the study of the institutional conditions of raising children in an environment of psychological deprivation ...

(1922–2004), child psychologist and researcher

References

External links

*
Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem
{{authority control Villages in Pardubice District World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic