Staré Splavy (German ''Thammühl am See'') is a town and a former spa resort, a part of the

Doksy Doksy (german: Hirschberg am See) is a town in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,200 inhabitants. It is known for Lake Mácha and its summer vacation resort. Administrative parts Villages of Břehyně, Kruh, Obora, Staré S ...

municipality in the Česká Lípa district, Liberec region, North Bohemia. Kohnova vila Staré Splavy

It is a recreation center on the northwest shore of Máchovo jezero. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was one of the most famous holiday destinations in all of

Austro-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...

. Even during the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic ( cs, První československá republika, sk, Prvá česko-slovenská republika), often colloquially referred to as the First Republic ( cs, První republika, Slovak: ''Prvá republika''), was the first Czechoslo ...

, Staré Splavy was a popular

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or ple ...

al place, especially for well-off

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

clientele from

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Liberec and even places as distant as

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, many built their summer homes here, mostly in the style of

art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

or functionalism (for example the Kohn brothers from Prague or

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Forman ...

's parents). The place was then often dubbed ''„das Böhmischer Lido''“ (''„The Bohemian Lido“'' in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

). Because the post-war

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

regime made the entire area one of the centres of socialist-style recreation in all of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

(especially in the 1970s and 1980s), sometimes it is today referred to as ''" Ibiza for the poor"'' (''"Ibiza pro chudé"''). Due to still relatively high density of

families in the vicinity (who either are post-WWII natives here or moved here from Prague and other big cities since the 1990s), it is often referred to as "the Czech

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas ...

" or " Czech

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

". Some well-known 20th century characters associated with the town include

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

(who has even dedicated one of his novels to the place, titled "Die Synagogue von Thammühl" - "The Synagogue of Thammühl"), Karel Poláček,

Friedrich Torberg Friedrich Torberg (16 September 1908, Vienna, Alsergrund – 10 November 1979, Vienna) is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer. Biography He worked as a critic and journalist in Vienna and Prague until 1938, when his Jewish ...

František R. Kraus František R. Kraus (גדעון בן יצחק קראוס ''Gideon ben Yitzhak'' with his Hebrew name) (October 14, 1903, Prague - May 19, 1967, Prague) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak History of the Jews in the Czech Republic, Jewish anti-f ...

, apart of more ancient personalities, such as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV or a romantic Czech poet

Karel Hynek Mácha Karel Hynek Mácha () (16 November 1810 – 5 November 1836) was a Czech romantic poet. Biography Mácha grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned Latin and German in school. He went on to study law at Prague University; du ...

, whose famous poem "Máj" is said to take place onshore of the hereby lake.

References

{{Coord, 50, 35, N, 14, 38, E, display=title, region:CZ_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in Česká Lípa District