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Horská Kvilda - The village of the record holder
Horská Kvilda is a unique village. Every year it attracts thousands of excursionists and adventurers. In the following text you will find all the important information that is good to know before you go on holiday to Horská Kvilda.
One of the highest situated villages
Horská Kvilda, German (Innergefild) 1070 m.n.m. is a village in the Sumava region in the district of Klatovy in the Pilsen Region. It is one of the highest villages in the Czech Republic. Thanks to this characteristic, the village of Horská Kvilda has become a unique place and is a highly sought-after destination for all excursionists. However, this is not the only curiosity...
The coldest climate
The lake waterfall near the village holds the record as the coldest place in Bohemia. In 2005, for example, the temperature was measured at -36.9 °C, which is still not the coldest year. Although the temperature has been slightly increasing in recent years, the frost records are still around -25 °C. Sometimes, even during the summer, the minimum temperature falls below -3 °C.
Information about Horská Kvilda
After the biggest curiosities we will describe the basic information about the village Horská Kvilda. The municipality covers an area of 29.91 km², which is quite a respectable figure considering the number of inhabitants. The number of inhabitants is kept at lower limits and according to the CSO, 66 inhabitants were registered in Horská Kvilda as of 1 January 2018, which is nothing compared to the period of the Second World War, when over 660 people lived here in almost 100 houses. Horská Kvilda also includes the settlement of Korýtko, located 4km southwest of Horská Kvilda, where 8 people lived according to 2011 data. Horská Kvilda uses the postcode 341 92 (Kvilda) or 385 01 (Vimperk). Nowadays Horská Kvilda is a well-known and popular tourist resort where hiking trails, cycling trails and winter cross-country tracks cross.
Origin of the name Horská Kvilda
The word “Horská” in the name does not refer to the location of the village, but to its former belonging to the nearby town of Kašperské Hory. The word “Kvilda” could be associated with the sound of howling wind. However, it has no connection with the wind. The term Kvilda comes from the German word “Gefilde”, which means a bare plain or meadow.
Horská Kvilda and surroundings
Around the relatively large village there is also the village of Kvilda (6km), where the nearest post office and grocery store are located. Furthermore, the surroundings are surrounded by various wetlands and bogs. The plains of Horská Kvilda are usually filled with spruce forests. Horská Kvilda offers countless activities and tips for trips. You can follow the green hiking trail along the Golden Trail, which led from Kašperské Hory through Horská Kvilda to Passau. You can go along the Hamerský brook to Antýgl, where the brook flows into the Vydra river, which is famous for its huge boulders in the riverbed. There are plenty of possibilities to go for a hike in Horská Kvilda. You can see more tips in our article “where to go hiking”. There are also many peaks worth mentioning in the vicinity of Horská Kvilda. Here we describe the biggest and most important ones.
Sokol - Antýgl
Sokol also called Antýgl is a mountain, situated above Horská Kvilda. The mountain is very visible from the aforementioned Jezerní slati. A very nice view of Antýgl is also offered by our accommodation in Horská Kvilda off the main road. Pension Helena Honesová.
View of Antygl from our Pension Helena Honesová, Horská Kvilda
Hut mountain
Mountain on Zhůří (4.4km), which offers a beautiful view of Malý and Velký Roklan. Zhůří (Haidl) is an extinct settlement where 104 inhabitants lived in 17 houses before the Second World War. There was also a chapel dedicated to St. Wenceslas, which was later demolished. In the 1950s, the last inhabitants were evicted and their abandoned houses were demolished. Barracks and radar stations were built on the site. During totalitarianism, entry to these places was strictly forbidden. On Christmas Eve in 1937, an Air France Wibault 282-T passenger plane crashed into the slope of Hutská hora. There were two crew members and one passenger on board, all of whom were killed. A memorial to the victims of the crash has been erected at the crash site.
Black Mountain
At a distance of about 13km from Horská Kvilda lies one of the highest mountains in the area - Černá hora. The mountain is located near the German border and differs from other mountains in the area by its specific characteristic. A spring of the Vltava River gushes out of the ground here. This area has been a border zone and therefore inaccessible for over 40 years.
In the following lines we will delve into the history of Horská Kvilda. The first mention of the area dates back to the 14th century.
History of Horská Kvilda
The town of Kašperské Hory was brimming with wealth thanks to gold mining. Therefore, in 1345, the wealthy townspeople donated over 600 armed soldiers to King John of Luxembourg when he organized an expedition against Landshut, a Bavarian town 72 km northeast of Munich. The King rewarded the town of Kašperské Hory for this feat and granted the town privileges. He added to the gift a large area to the south, in those days called Kvildy or Gefilde - Plains, as mentioned in the text above. The area later came to be known as Outer Kvildy (Ausergefild), which later became the settlement of Kvilda and Inner Kvildy (Innergefild). The settlement of Horská Kvilda was later established on this area.
Polauf's Inn
According to sources from 1680, the Pollauf farm and inn were probably the first to be built on the territory of Horská Kvilda due to the routes of the Golden Trail. It is highly probable that it was established much earlier, but unfortunately there are no sources to prove it. The establishment of the inn was linked to the security of the Golden Trail.
Origin of the village Horská Kvilda
In 1849, when serfdom was abolished during the Reformation, Horská Kvilda, including all its settlements, was incorporated into the newly established municipality of Kozí Hřbet according to the municipal law. 10 years later, in 1859, the independent village of Horská Kvilda was established.
The first school in Horská Kvilda
In 1768, schooling began. Unfortunately, there was no suitable building in Horská Kvilda for teaching. So the teacher went from house to house and the teaching took place alternately in individual dwellings. This system was interrupted in 1825, after the town of Kašperské Hory intervened and built the first school near the Pollauf farm. The pupils paid school fees, which constituted the teacher's salary. Teaching was supervised by the local parish priest. Children often did not attend school. Firstly because of the climatic conditions, secondly because of the social situation of the parents. The children often helped out at home instead of at school. The children had to travel over 6 km from Dolni Antygli to the school building. The journey was further complicated by the fact that the children did not even have proper shoes. On summer days they went barefoot, in winter they wore clogs.
The biggest boom
The village reached its greatest growth in the 19th century. In the surroundings of Horská Kvilda other settlements and solitudes were established. Korýtko (Grandl), Bärnstein, Upper and Lower Antýgl (Oberantigl and Unterantigl), Výhledy (Schrollenhaid), Ranklov (Ranklau), Zlatá Studna (Goldbrunn), U Matesa (Steindl) and the largest settlement Zhůří (Haidl) including the solitudes Nový Dům (Neuhaus or Bergerhütte) and Hluboká (Tiefenau). The village of Horská Kvilda itself was made up of several parts. The Otter Bridge (Wiedrabruck), the Danielov (Danieln), the Polauf houses and the Xander houses. Turner's cottage is also part of Horská Kvilda. In 1945, the village of Horská Kvilda had 662 inhabitants in 93 dwellings.
Celebrities at Horská Kvilda
Rankl Sepp
Less than a kilometer from Horská Kvilda, specifically from Ranklov, came the legendary Rankelský Sepp, who grew to a height of 210 cm and was a local strongman. His own name was Josef Klostermann, and he was the owner of a farmstead in Ranklov.
Andreas Hartauer
Andreas Hartauer (1839-1915), who was born in Stachovská Hut, spent his youth in Zlatá studna and went to school in Horská Kvilda, also attended the former primary school in Horská Kvilda.
JUDr. Wilhelm Pollauf
JUDr. Wilhelm Pollauf (1876-1916), born in Horská Kvilda in Pollauf's inn, clerk at the Ministry of Finance, court and court advocate in Vienna. Honorary citizen of Horská Quilda. At the very beginning of the First World War he was called up for military service. As a doctor of law he was active in military courts. In 1916, he was hit by an enemy shell in a café in Gorizia, now Italy. In 1924, a memorial plaque was placed on Pollauf's birthplace in Horská Kvilda, commemorating this great son of Šumava until his removal.
Karel Klostermann - writer of Šumava
Karel Klostermann (1848-1923), although he did not come from Horská Kvilda, it is not possible to omit a short mention of this writer who loved our region so much that he wrote a number of books about it. His most famous novel “In the Paradise of Sumava” describes the life of the Sumava giant, Rankel Sepp, in Horská Kvilda.
The Hones family
From the Hones family, which has lived here since 1765, comes the family of Gustav Hones, one of the few families that were not included in the post-war expulsion and were able to stay in their family home in Horská Kvilda, where four sons Eduard, Gustav, Helmut, Herbert and only daughter Anna were born. Their descendants still live here today. In 1990 the village of Horská Kvilda became an independent municipality. Eduard Hones was the mayor of the village for 17 years. Gustav Hones worked in the former Pollauf's Inn during its reconstruction in 1980-82. The inn was converted into a recreation centre where he was employed as a cottage manager. In 1990, he and his family rented the cottage and operated it as the Hones Pension and Restaurant until 2000. In 2004, the guesthouse was permanently closed and sold to a new owner.
Take a look at our Pension na Horské Kvilde website and book your room easily online.
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