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Building E24

  • wine cellar without winepress house, lot. No. 659, of Jiřina Hromková from the house No. 398 in Prušánky

The building is considerably younger than the aforementioned ones. For the first time, it was documented in 1856. Anna Zwedeliková, married Kaňová, got the building as her wedding present. The cellar was not owned by any family for a long time – the Kaňa, Maděryč and Hromek families took turns at its possession. The building represents a big group of cellars without winepress houses, consisting of the cellars connected by a long corridor, called šíja (neck), with the earth´ surface.

History

Viticulture has a very long tradition in Prušánky. Some scientists supposed it to relate to the Knights of Templars who acted in Čejkovice, a centre of a rich domain, to which Prušánky belonged. The reliable reports mentioned the vineyard in the 15th and especially in the 16th centuries when the viticulture flourished. The Thirty Years´ War and the Swedish invasion to Moravia caused many vineyards to be deserted. The field visitation in 1671 measured 540 half-acres of vineyards; the most of them were, however, devastated and barren. The renovation made only slow progress and the new lords, the Society of Jesus, had to encourage the farmers to plant the vineyards. Some farmers were exempted from the fees for six or ten years yet it lasted almost one hundred years until the vineyards were planted out.

At the end of the 18th century, the following tracts of vineyards were situated in the locality: Horní and Dolní Nechory, Podkovny and Roztrhansko. In addition, the vineyards were planted out in other less suitable localities - Nové and Nové louky tracts – where the vines suffered from frost and the grapes did not ripen well. The promising development was interrupted in the mid-19th century, as the vineyards were attacked by phylloxera. The land register witnesses that many vineyards were liquidated and replaced by fields. The situation changed at the beginning of the 20th century, along with resistant stocks and modern farming methods. In the mid-20th century, there were 52 hectares of vineyards in the locality. Taking into account the local conditions, the varieties Neuburger, Green Veltliner, Green Sylvaner, Lemberger and Chrupka, Blue Portugieser, St. Laurent and Müller-Thurgau are suitable.

Constructional development

Even if the history of viticulture in Prušánky is more than 500 hundred years old, we have few detailed reports about the appearance of vintners ´ buildings. The ground winepress houses were recorded on the military map from the mid-18th century for the first time, then again on cadastral maps in 1827 and 1880. In addition, plenty of cellars without winepress houses existed, which were not recorded on the maps. Nevertheless, the occurrence of both types within one area is typical for this territory.

Available clay, timber from local trees, rye straw, burnt bricks and stones were used as the constructional materials. The winepress houses have a square or rectangular ground plan. The entire space is recessed into the low slope reaching up to the roof in the rear part. The hip roof with trussed rafter and a dormer in the front wall were thatched as late as in the 1970s. One can find, however, also the saddle roofs covered with burnt or concrete roof tiles. The walls of the winepress house are built of earth rammed into wooden formwork. The walls include only a two-wing entrance door, and some small ventilation holes. The large spindle wine press is placed at one side of the winepress house, the vessels and tools are stored opposite it. The door in the rear wall leads to the short corridor - link – through which one can go down to the cellar. The room is just scooped out of the loess soil. The vault is made of stones and bricks.

The cellars without winepress houses are another widespread type of vintners´ buildings. The circumstances of their origin are different; they can represent very old buildings with undeveloped separated winepress house (Plže in Petrov). On the other hand, they can represent very young building units, built at the end of the 19th century, in connection with the increased number of small vintners who worked only for their own needs. It is the gable wall with massive oak door and one or two ventilation holes that is the only visible part of the entire building. The entrance is solved in different way – from simple door jamb up to aesthetically shaped porch with a roof and arches above the entrance and multi-coloured coat.

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INSPIRATION · FUN · EDIFICATION FOR A WHOLE FAMILY
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