A Renaissance square that floats on its own fishpond reflection
Telč is a small Moravian town whose immaculately preserved Renaissance market square is often called the most beautiful in Central Europe. Two large fishponds flank the old town on almost all sides, creating an island of 16th-century architecture that appears to float on water. The gabled burgher houses lining the square — painted in ochre, cream, and pale rose — were rebuilt in unified late-Gothic and Renaissance style after a fire in 1530 at the behest of local lord Zacharias of Hradec, who brought Italian masters from Genoa. With fewer than 6,000 residents and a UNESCO designation since 19…
Telč was founded by the Přemyslid dynasty in the 13th century as a crossroads market town in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. A devastating fire in 1530 prompted Zacharias of Hradec to rebuild the town centre entirely in the Renaissance style fashionable at the imperial court, with Italian craftsmen from Genoa shaping the arcaded houses and the château. The town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992 — one of the first three Czech sites — as an exceptional example of a central-European townscape whose entire historical character has been preserved intact.