Třebíč; Towers, Tombstones and the Torah

Třebíč was a major centre of Jewish culture in pre-war Moravia and an example of the relatively harmonious co-existence of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Today, it is a town of around 40,000 inhabitants nestled beside the Jihlava River among the gentle hills of Southern Moravia.

A Benedictine monastery was founded here in the year 1101, and a town grew beneath it where a trade road crossed the river. In the year 1335 the town was fortified, but fell to the Hussite armies in 1424. In 1468, the town returned to catholic ownership at the hands of the invading army of Hungarian king Mathias Korvin. The Swedish army razed Třebíč in the Thirty Years’ War of the 17th century, and the Prussians repeated the act in 1742.

The Main(Charles) Square/Karlovo Náměstí, is one of the main hubs for visitors and much of the appearance of the area around it dates from the post-war reconstruction of the late 1700s. One especially notable building is the ‘painted house’ on the highest corner of the square, which has been restored and is now used as the tourist information office. On weekday mornings, a lively fruit and vegetable market takes place, and the square teems with Třebíčans going about their business. The most recognizable landmark of the city is the tower attached to nearby St Martin’s church which allows clear views over the surrounding countryside from its 35m-high viewing platform.

The residential Jewish Quarter suffered less destructive attention from the invading armies but had to live through frequent fires and floods. It is a warren of narrow streets, crooked lanes and hidden passageways, and above it on the hillside is an extensive cemetery. The oldest building in Třebíč is the monastery (later converted into a palace) and it’s Basilica dedicated to St Procopius. Other interesting sights include a windmill from the year 1836, an orthodox church with a gilded ‘onion’ dome, and the city baths on the left bank of the Jihlava below the palace.

In 2003 the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization added Třebíč’s historic Jewish quarter, Jewish cemetery, and Basilica of Saint Procopius to its list of protected world cultural heritage.

Quick Tips:

Třebíč is a good place to visit on a Monday as most things are open seven days a week (Monday is the most usual closing day). The one thing that closes on Monday is the regional museum in the chateau/zamek, which incorporates the national museum of nativity scenes.

To pronounce the name of the city, say "TREB-each". The ‘C’ with the little hook above it is always pronounced CH as in cheese. And that’s also worth bearing in mind if you’re continuing on to Telč or Český Krumlov. The Ř is also a special sound, but you’ll get away with just saying R, and I probably shouldn’t try to teach it until I can be sure I pronounce it properly myself.

Best Way To Get Around:

Třebíč is 190km south-east of Prague on the main train line between Brno (90mins) and Jihlava(40mins) in South Moravia. There are a couple of direct buses each day from Prague, but no direct trains. Fortunately, Czech railway stations are well organized and efficient and changing trains rarely presents a problem. From places east (Olomouc, Vienna, Krakow), it will be necessary to change either in Brno or Jihlava. The online timetables are accurate and thorough. Bus is best to and from Telč (40 minutes) and equally as good as the train, if you’re heading through Brno.

Within Třebíč, pretty much everything is within 10 minutes’ walk of the main square. The best aid to getting around is to quickly find the passageway from Karlovo Námestí/The Main (Charles) Square to the edge of the Jihlava River. From there a footbridge takes you across into the Jewish quarter. The main square and the Jewish quarter are the two hubs for sightseeing in Třebíč and if you don’t use the passageway the walk is long and confusing. The passageway and most of the historic sights are pointed out by whimsical hand-painted signs in the shape of various birds and animals.

Penzion U Synagogy
Subakova 43
Třebíč
Tel 568 821 665, 568 823 005

Penzion U Synagogy/Pension by the Synagogue is appropriately located next door to the rear synagogue in the UNESCO-listed Jewish quarter of Třebíč.

Reception is next door in the tourist information office, which also serves as the ticket office for the synagogue. Check-In formalities are completed in the information office, and then a staff member walks you to your room, explaining the keys and staircase lights along the way. Security is excellent with the main door being kept locked at all times, a separate key for each room and the windows of the tourist office, allowing a clear view of who is coming and going from the pension.

I had room 3, which was spacious and spotlessly clean. It had obviously been recently refurbished. There was a television, writing table, nightlight, and a small refrigerator hidden within one of the veneer cabinets. The only faults I could pick were that the mattress was a bit firm for my (spoilt?) taste and that the refrigerator was a little noisy (easily solved by unplugging it from the power socket).

The view from the window was of the small square in front of the synagogue, the beginnings of the streets leading off it, and the pedestrian bridge over the Jihlava River. I slept with open windows and there was almost no noise from the street (although it was a Sunday and other nights of the week may be livelier?). The location was extremely convenient, being just a few metres from the main crossing point between the Jewish quarter and the main town centre. I found myself walking past several times in the course of visiting different attractions, which made it easy to pop in quickly for a glass of water or to use the facilities.

I paid 490Kc/15 euros/$20 U.S. for a single room, and a double will set you back 790Kc. Breakfast is not included, but a small bonus of being a guest of the pension is that entrance to the synagogue is free of charge, which makes the 490Kc effectively 450Kc. Check-out time is a generous 11am.

Kavárna Holiday/Café Bar Holiday is a good place for brunch beside the large supermarket on the main road leading away from the east end of Karlovo Náměstí.

The front of the Kavárna looks kind of tacky; there’s lots of overly large lettering and unnecessary advertising material. The inside though is a finely choreographed ballet of green-stained wood, checked linen and natural colours, that manages to give the impression of dining in a stately courtyard garden.

The Kavárna was quite busy when I entered and chose a table by the window so it took a while before I had a chance to see the menu. As soon as I saw the bacon and eggs on the special breakfast menu, I ordered the dish and a coffee, and they were prepared and on my table within five minutes flat. The generous amount of bacon and three eggs were 47Kc, the two bread rolls that I had alongside were 4Kc each and the espresso with milk 29Kc, for a total of 84Kc/2.5 euros/$3 U.S. I noticed also a special lunch menu in which one dish per day was offered for 59Kc, and the soup of the day for 20Kc.

The other diners ranged from young ladies having a vigorous gossip and businessmen discussing details to construction workers getting in some early beers during a break. The chairs were comfortable and the space was well-ventilated. There didn’t appear to be a space reserved for non-smokers, but only the vigorous gossips at the next table were lighting up, and the smoke disappeared quickly.

The window seat allowed me to pass the time watching people pass by, including a fellow in a glossy hi-tech lycra cycling outfit and wrap-around sunglasses atop a penny-farthing. He was heading for the cobblestoned part of town, so I hope he’s okay.

Restaurant Neptun is a comfortable, pleasantly decorated restaurant on the aptly named Tiché Náměstí/Quiet Square within a fishing line’s throw of the Front (Old) Synagogue. It is ostensibly a fish restaurant, but they also have the usual range of chicken, pork, pasta, and vegetarian dishes.

Entry to the restaurant is past the outdoor terrasse into a deep-salmon-coloured hall, where you’ll find the customer toilets and entry to the restaurant proper. Inside are two rooms, the first with a bar area and three tables with long benches. The main dining room has five or six tables with enough chairs for about twenty people. The overall capacity of the restaurant would be around sixty; with about twenty in each of the three dining areas.

I chose the chicken steak stuffed with salmon, which appeared at the table promptly and was delicious. The meal was 105Kc, the side order of chips a further 20Kc and the bottle of mineral water 15Kc. Tipping in the Czech Republic is usually just a rounding up of the bill, so when the waiter added it up and told me "140", I told him "150", and we were both happy. The meal was served on handcrafted pottery and was one of the most memorable I’ve had in the last months. The combination of flavours was unusual to me, but worked very well. Even the side salad was notable for the addition of fruits like watermelon and strawberry.

The fish theme is carried through the décor of the interior, with a mounted crab, several pieces of coral and lots of sea-shells adding interest to the deep-salmon walls and stained wooden furniture. The only thing that could improve the look of the place would be to do away with some of the glossy promotional material that has obviously been supplied by a manufacturer of bottled drinks.

I found out about Neptun by asking the gentleman at tourist information. He eats lunch there every day, and if I lived in Třebíč and could afford to eat out every day, I probably would too.

Čajovna Speedy Gonzales is an odd little teahouse in a run-down-looking building on the edge of Třebíč’s Jewish quarter.

It’s on the first floor and is essentially one room, which has been divided into four or five separate seating areas with low wooden walls. The walls have multicoloured sarongs draped over them and more sarongs hang from the ceiling to create the illusion of walls. It seems crowded and a little strange when you first walk in, but actually works quite well to provide privacy but still a feeling of space. Each small seating corner has a low raised platform upon which to sit on cushions and serve yourself tea from a tray on the floor. It’s always good teahouse etiquette to remove your shoes before sitting on one of these raised platforms.

I had the tea masala(400ml-39Kc, 600ml-49Kc) which is black tea spiced with ginger, cardamom, cloves, pepper and probably a couple of other spices. True to the name of the teahouse it was prepared speedily and served with a smile. The tea-man apparently brewed a pot for himself as well, as he returned a few minutes later to apologize for making it too strong: "it burns the throat a little." I hadn’t noticed, so I attempted to hide my unrefined palate with "It’s okay; that’s the way I like it". I was also treating my sweet tooth to the raisins in yoghurt, so maybe they were giving my throat a little protection?

The Speedy Gonzales Teahouse is open seven days a week from 1pm to at least 9:30pm and at least 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights. As well as tea there are water pipes for the smoking of flavoured tobacco and a wide range of things for sale. Wind chimes, cushion covers, CDs of world music and guitar strings share sales space with the more traditional leaf teas, incense burners and ceramic tea sets. There are also a lot of notices for things such as yoga, meditation retreats, tai chi and the like, so it seems as if the teahouse may also function as a bit of a cultural centre for people interested in the wisdoms of the east.

Not the slickest teahouse in the country by any stretch of the imagination, but still not a bad spot to recharge the sightseeing batteries with a pot of chai.

The Basilica of St Procopius has become much more widely known since being added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage in 2003.

A Benedictine monastery was founded on an outcrop above the Jihlava River in 1101, and in the early 1200s, the basilica was built within the monastery grounds on the site of the original St Benedict’s church. The basilica is considered important as it’s built in both the Late Romanesque and Early Gothic styles, with much of the structural vaulting having the typical gothic point at the top, but the windows and the doorways being crowned with Romanesque curves.

Entry is only possible as part of a guided tour. I was provided with a printed English text, and the French-speakers who were on the same tour were supplied with small electronic devices with recorded texts. The tour starts on the north side of the building in front of the Portal Paradisi (doorway to paradise) which is one of the most impressive features of the basilica. It was rediscovered in 1862 after spending many decades having been covered by plaster. Many of the small figures are missing their faces, but the overall proportion and grace of the portal is not diminished by the damage.

The tour progresses to the main hall of the basilica, where the various architectural features are pointed out and the significance of the various saints is explained. The most impressive are the patron saint of the Czech lands, Sv Vaclav/St Wenceslas, his mother Sv Ludmila and of course, Sv Prokop. The original hewn rock is exposed for the most part, with only the ceiling vaults being plastered. The effect is austere, but somehow gentle at the same time. Perhaps because each stone has quite rounded corners and is set in deep beds of mortar there’s an organic, even almost feminine, atmosphere. From the main hall the tour then leads to a small side chapel which is covered in valuable frescoes and dedicated to St Benedict.

The crypt was my favourite part of the tour. It’s a tranquil, silent place of beautiful ceiling vaults supported by columns of the same stone as the upper section of the basilica. The guide explained that the basilica was used for secular purposes after the Thirty Years War and that the crypt was used as storage for barrels of beer. Photography is prohibited within the main part of the basilica as well as in the small chapel with the frescoes. It’s not made clear that it’s permissible in the crypt either, but I asked the guide and she said it would be ok if I was quick.

The tour then leaves the basilica and walks through the garden under the rosette windows behind the altar. There’s enough time for a couple of last questions before the guide unlocks the heavy iron gates and we emerge back into the 21st century.

Admittance for adults is 40Kč, students 20Kč.

The UNESCO-listed Jewish quarter in Třebíč is easily the best preserved in the Czech Republic and certainly among the best within Europe.

The Třebíč quarter has all the typical features of Jewish ghettos in Moravia. It’s located between the seat of the land owning family and the Christian town, in a very small area which has been densely and haphazardly built upon. In addition to the two synagogues, all the necessities of Jewish life were present. A Rabbinate, school, almshouse, town hall and ritual slaughterhouse all stand on the two main parallel streets, L.Pokorného (formerly Dolní Židovská/Lower Jewish street) and Blahoslavova (formerly Horní Židovská/Upper Jewish street). As there is no remaining Jewish community in Třebíč, none of these buildings serve their original purpose. The front synagogue for example is now used by the Hussite church as their main place of worship.

The first written mention of Jewish settlement in the area is from the year 1338. Due to the crowding and proximity to the river, the Jewish quarter suffered fires and floods frequently throughout the following centuries. In the late 1700s, 260 Jewish families were invited to settle in Třebíč and it became one of the four major centres of Jewish population in Moravia (along with Boskovice, Mikulov and Holešov). In 1835, the population of the Jewish town reached its peak with 1490 inhabitants. After obtaining equal rights with the rest of the population in 1848, Jewish families began to leave the ghetto and move to larger cities in search of better economic conditions. Christians started to move into the quarter and it became the working class area of the town. The Second World War finally ended the Jewish community in Třebíč, with more than 270 inhabitants being taken away by the Nazi occupiers.

The two main thoroughfares are connected with several narrow lanes, and at least three narrow dark passageways that run beneath the houses and through their yards. The passages are marked with descriptive plaques in Czech, English and German, which is good because the passages are dark, and twist and turn. It’s not possible to see through to the other end and if you didn’t know, you would assume that it was the entrance to a private courtyard. It’s a clever system that must have been very convenient for the inhabitants and frustrating to any outsider.

The Jewish quarter today is an interesting study of a changing community. Some houses are obviously inhabited by people without two crowns to rub together, let alone spend on building maintenance. Others have been renovated with finesse at obvious expense and house lawyers’ offices, antique stores and galleries. I hope it won’t change too much; the quarter has all the potential of other places that have become major tourist destinations and thanks to the UNESCO listing it now also has the public profile. It would be a pity to see the inhabitants forced out by higher rents offered by cocktail bars, crystal shops and Internet cafes.

The Jewish Cemetery in Třebíč is among the largest in the Central Europe, with 11,000 graves and 3,000 headstones covering almost 12,000 square metres.

The cemetery was founded in 1468, when it no longer became possible to use the former cemetery due to damage caused by the invading army of Hungarian king Mathias Korvin. The location on the hillside above the Tynský stream began to be used in that year, but the oldest remaining preserved gravestone dates from 1625. The cemetery was extended to its present size in 1888 and the first gravestones visible from the entry gates are the most recent.

The older section of the cemetery is the more interesting. It’s quite overgrown with ivy and other plants, and I’m sure there are some headstones that have completely disappeared from view beneath the greenery. Some of the headstones are of a particular type known as the Moravian or Mikulov type, combining Hebrew script and traditional design but also incorporating the floral and botanic motifs of Moravian folk-art. There are no interpretive signs or explanatory texts at the cemetery, but the permanent exhibition at the rear synagogue refers specifically to the Moravian headstones in the Třebíč cemetery.

Narrow unpaved trails lead around the walls and between the different sections of the cemetery, and in some places headstones have even been used as retaining walls. The cemetery is teeming with small grey squirrels, but if their careers as photographic models are ever going to take off, they will need to learn to be more cooperative.

A massive stone wall surrounds the cemetery and its funeral chapel, but the iron gates are open every day of the year from 9am to 4pm, and from 8am until 8pm in the summer months. There is no admittance fee. Visitors are requested to keep the gates closed as dogs are not permitted within the cemetery grounds. There’s also a prominent sign (in Czech only) sternly warning that any vandalism will be severely punished.

Guided tours can be arranged by calling Mr Zdeněk Malášek on 568 827 111 between 6 and 8pm.

The Třebíč town tower is attached to St Martin’s church but is not actually the tower of St Martin’s.

The tower was constructed after Charles (later to become holy roman emperor Charles IV) granted Třebíč in 1335 full town privileges and ordered the construction of a defensive wall. The tower was finished by the beginning of the 15th century, but the 1468 invasion by the Hungarian army under Mathias Korvin was disastrous for the town and the upper floors of the tower were destroyed. The Huns had also attempted to topple the tower by undermining it, but were prevented by the depth and strength of the foundations. St Martin’s church originally stood beside, but distinctly separate from the tower, and it was during the post-war reconstruction of the church that the buildings were connected.

The following centuries saw several incidents of fire and storm damage to the tower, but the worst of those was the great fire of 1822, in which much of the town was destroyed. The fire accomplished what the Hungarian army could not, and most of the tower collapsed into what is today Hasskova Street.

A major reconstruction took place in 1862, including the addition of a lightning rod, which seems to have been a worthwhile investment as the appearance of the tower is largely unchanged from that time. The tower was rebuilt to approximately its original height of 35 metres (which is where the viewing platform is today), and then extended with the clock room and Baroque wooden and copper turret adding about the same height again.

Inside the tower, apart from the obligatory apathetic summer-job ticket-girl, you will be able to see the cast bells and the mechanical workings of the clocks. The clock faces are considered to be the largest in Europe, with a diameter of 5.5 metres and numerals with a height of 60cm.

No excuse for your travel companions to be late for lunch in this town.

U Trumpetky is a lively little bar that fills the Jewish quarter with noise until it closes its doors and shutters on the dot of 10pm. The frivolity continues on inside until the wee small hours.

It’s a reasonably small bar; there are just three rooms, and there are table football and snooker tables taking up some of that space. The music was loud reggae and rock and the clientele are definitely of the beer swilling (as opposed to wine-sipping) persuasion. The snooker table in the back room was well-patronised as were the stools around the bar in the front room. I chose a table in the middle room and when I realized there was no table service, got up again and got myself a Kofola from the bar.

Kofola is a Czech-made drink that’s kind of a cross between multinational colas and sarsaparilla. Or ‘herbal cola’ would be another approximate description. It’s good. If you order it and expect to get Coke or Pepsi, you’ll think it’s flat or watered down and be disappointed. But if you order it with an open mind, expecting herbal cola or with no real expectations, it’s good!

U Trumpetky was the only bar I could find in the Jewish quarter and it had that devil-may-care atmosphere of bars that dispense with all pretence of elegance, and just concentrate unashamedly on what they do. Which is serve drinks and provide a space for friends to convince each other of unlikely things over a soundtrack of loud music. The Little Trumpet is also following a long tradition of bars that open in rundown neighbourhoods that later become fashionable (Montmartre in Paris, Kazimierz in Krakow, Fitzroy in Melbourne, East Berlin). The bars on Třebíč’s main square all had flashing light gambling machines and tacky fake gold trim attached to everything in sight.

Give me the rough and tumble honesty of the back street bars any day. Especially in a country like the Czech Republic, where drinking is just a normal everyday part of life and the biggest danger is getting hugged to death by somebody whose uncle emigrated to a town that might be close to where you’re from.

Open seven days a week from 4pm to at least 1am and later on weekends.

Zadní Synagoga/The Rear Synagogue functions as the museum of the UNESCO-listed Jewish quarter, due to the permanent exhibition of cultural artifacts, some of which are on permanent loan from a museum in Prague. There are historic copies of the Torah, prayer boxes, and silver Torah pointers, as well as written interpretations of the history of the Jewish quarter and the Jewish community in Třebíč.

It’s an unremarkable building from the outside, but the liturgical texts from as far back as 1707 which adorn the walls make it a highlight of any visit to Třebíč. The building dates from the turn of the 17th century, and the northern part of the women’s gallery was added in 1837. This section of the women’s gallery is houses the permanent museum exhibition. Photography within the main hall of the synagogue is permitted, but visitors are requested not to photograph the historical items on display as part of the exhibition.

The synagogue stopped being used for religious services after the First World War, when it began to function as a storage area for a private firm. After the Second World War, the state company Zelenina Třebíč/Třebíč Fruit and Vegetables gained the use of the storage space. The moisture and lack of maintenance meant that the building was in a disastrous state by the 1980s, when a plan was put forward to level the entire Jewish quarter and use the space for high-rise concrete apartment blocks.

Fortunately that plan was not put into action and in the second half of the 1980s, reconstruction of the synagogue began. The reconstruction was halted in 1990, after the late 1989 fall of the communist regime. Free of communist ideology, the reconstruction project was modified and took a more reverential approach to the synagogue, especially towards the unique wall paintings of texts from the Torah. The Rear Synagogue, along with the Front Synagogue, the rest of the Jewish quarter and the Jewish cemetery were added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage in 2003.

In 1938, the Jewish community numbered around 300, but by the end of the Second World War only ten remained. As there is no remaining Jewish community in Třebíč to use the synagogue for services, it is used as museum space, for classical music concerts and for seminars.