Sklepní uličky

The cellar alley

Similar popularity gained Bzenecký Zlatý hrozen, red Burgundy of Bzenec – the top-class cultivars of grapes. Bzenec is also a crossroad of wine cycling tracks in Slovácko region.

We get to know from historical books that wine cellars were called “plže” in Bzenec. Press houses or shelters consisted of a small brick house connected in one unit with the cellar. The interior is usually decorated with paints, popular motifs include ten wine rules, the Old castle and pomes of wine.

The oldest cellars in the town can be found „Ve zmolách“ under the hill called Starý hrad / Old Castle. The owner of cellar No. 59 states that the cellar dates back to 1124. The cellars are dug in loess loam; the clay layer above them reaches as much as 20 metres in some sections. The sloping and twisty corridors are sometimes as much as 70 m long (one of the longest cellars in Bzenec is cellar No. 84 – you can find it behind Müller´s house, a dilapidating monument of rustic Baroque), most of them bricked as late as at the beginning of the 20´s century. In 1953, the lane was seriously damaged during landslip following heavy rains.

The cellar lane V Barákách exists for over 200 years, but current appearance of most of the cellars dates back to 60ś of the 20^th century. The complex of wine cellars „Na Těmické“ was built in 1984 up to 1990 according to the design of Ing. arch. František Vozák. The most extensive cellar labyrinth is below the castle and the legend says fro the labyrinth to be connected by a corridor with the Buchlov Castle. Giant butts are placed inside, decorated by local woodcutter František Budař with motifs from Bzenec history.

Further information:

www.bzenec.cz