Diskusně vzdělávací večer - Voroplavba na jihočeských řekách

Rafting is a phenomenon that has no parallels in Europe. Watercourses were used to float wood not only in our country, but also in other countries (e.g. Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Slovenia), but never on such a scale and over such a long time horizon as on Czech rivers. This is a thousand-year history of the craft, which has not changed significantly over the centuries and has not been affected by various technical inventions either. The basis has always been hard physical work in the forests when cutting wood and then processing it and tying it into rafts. Nevertheless, whole families were dedicated to this craft, in which swimming tools and love for the water were passed down from fathers to sons. Men on rafts used to be exposed to the vagaries of the weather and had to deal with various pitfalls, as the river bed was full of treacherous rocks, boulders, dangerous currents and very often the crew lost their lives. If it weren't for these brave men, who fell in love with the river with all its quirks, but also its charms, the cities on the banks of our streams and especially Prague and its palaces, churches and squares would not have been created. Most of the building material arrived in the capital by water – sturdy logs from the Šumava forests, stone blocks from the Povolta quarries and sand mined directly from the bottom of the river, these were the raw materials without which all the splendor of our metropolis could not have been created.
Let's go back in time to the period when stout tribes from the local forests sailed down South Bohemian rivers, especially the Otava and the Vltava... after a raft of rafts in the spring and summer... and traveled to Prague and often even further, as far as Hamburg. which were in great demand in the construction industry, in the shipbuilding industry, but also in the production of musical instruments.
Let's remember the swimmers and their work together, all of this will be supplemented with film footage, period photographs and records from the narrations of the last witnesses of rafting, Josef Štofl from Zvíkovské Podhradí, Josef Pták from Červená nad Vltavou and Václav Husa from Albrechtická Hladná.
In the evening, we will be guided by Radka Velková, who has been devoted to the history of rafting for more than two decades. Together with Jiří Fröhlich, they wrote two books dedicated to rafting - Swimming stories, People from the water. They also collaborated on film documentaries.
Entrance fee: 50 CZK