Volary – Wooden Heart of Europe

The locals are said to be peculiar in character, distrustful of new stimuli, disliking to marry and marry outside their territory, but historically they have been very stubborn. After the war, all the original inhabitants were displaced and all sorts of new people came here, to whom this assessment no longer applies. Today, Volary is the largest railway junction in Sumava, strategically trains come here from all over the world and it is equally possible to leave from here in all directions.

The town lies on the territory of CHKO Sumava and on the border of NP Sumava. Today's urban development is set in the basin of the Warm Vltava River north of the river, around the Volar Stream. Old wooden Alpine chalets can be found among the prefabricated houses, and this contrast is enhanced by the fact that the famous Golden Trail leading from Passau to Prachatice passed through here from the early 14th century. It was the trade that stimulated the development of the former Sumava settlement and determined the whole course of local society. The Hussite wars and the subsequent post-war years, when bands of mercenaries roamed the region and ambushed merchants (one of which was based at the castle Hus 6 km from Volary), interrupted the boom of trade on the Golden Trail.

In the streets Česká, Václava Raise, Soumarská and Nádražní you can see timbered houses of the Alpine type, built by shepherds coming from Styria and Tyrol. The buildings with a partly stone ground floor housed both the residential and the economic part under one roof. Since 1995, these buildings have been protected in the village conservation area.

In 1863, a fire dealt a major blow to the town. It broke out in the evening in one of the stables and in a very short time engulfed half the town. The fire consumed 59 houses, the church and the school. Contemporary documents state that the glow from the fire was visible in the night sky as far away as Linc, Austria. The day after the fire, the rest of the town and the burn area were additionally hit by a devastating storm and a swollen creek. However, the destruction of half of the town set in motion its rapid rebuilding and further development. Newly built structures were no longer all-timbered, but stone and brick were more prevalent as building materials.

According to tradition, the town's name is of German origin and derives from the forests surrounding the town; others hold the theory of the Volari, or cattle breeders. Another version derives the name from Andreas Waller, a councillor from Prachatice, who is said to have colonised the area. The town's coat of arms has four fir trees in the middle, the middle two of which are taller: the symbol is supposed to prove that Volary has always had the right to freely graze cattle and cut down trees in the forests. The emblem was granted to the town on April 30, 1871 by Emperor Francis Joseph I, who granted the local town the status of a city.

The Volary Museum in one of Volary's historic timbered houses is worth a visit. In addition to the permanent exhibitions The Death March, Old Volary in Photography, The Golden Trail and Snippets of History, there is also a new exhibition of the Stations of the Cross.