Jabkenice

Jabkenice is a municipality with 363 inhabitants in the Czech Republic. It belongs to Okres Mladá Boleslav and located 18 kilometers south of the district capital Mladá Boleslav at the edge of the Bohemian Paradise.

Geography

A large part of the municipality is the Natural Park Jabkenicko, a forest with numerous small ponds and an extensive deer park. The landscape in a northwesterly direction to the Jizera is flat and is used mainly for agricultural purposes. Neighboring towns in the northwest are Smilovice, Luštěnice, Kosořice and Pečice.

History

The area around Jabkenice been inhabited since prehistoric times. The oldest archaeological finds are dated to the 5th century BC and attributed to the early La Tène period.

In the 14th century Jabkenice was a parish village. The first written mention dates from 1352, the first known owner was Beneš Divina. 1554 bought Anna von Wartenberg on the property and transferred the place her husband Heinrich von Waldstein. The last owner of the house Wallenstein from 1735 Anna Maria, wife of Josef von Furstenberg, who has emerged through relentless pursuit of the Bohemian Brethren. This evangelical direction, which was banned since the Thirty Years' War in the 18th century belonged to the majority of the inhabitants of Jabkenice. 1808 was the possession of the House of Thurn and Taxis.

Became known Jabkenice by his forester's house, lived in the Bedřich Smetana from 1875 until his death in 1884. He created here including his last three operas ( The Kiss, The Secret and The Devil's Wall ) and ended the cycle My Country. In the forest a house Smetana Museum is housed, since 1924 a music festival is held annually in honor of the composer.

Attractions

• The Forest House is a branch of Bedřich Smetana Museum in Prague. The museum was opened in 1928 in 1987 due to disrepair closed, restored and reopened in 2003 with a permanent exhibition.
• The 1804 furnished deer park covers 530 ha, it is open to the public outside the closed seasons.
• In addition to the forester's house stands in 1924 created Smetana monument of František Bilek.