Tichá - Fortress

On the Czech-Austrian border, not far from the Dolní Dvořiště border crossing, lies the village of Tichá with its fortress of the same name. It is not actually a fortress, but an early Gothic stronghold that protected the often uncertain border between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Duchy of Austria throughout the Middle Ages. The location for the fortress was not chosen at random. The oldest archaeological finds from this site date back to 1600 BC, and since ancient times, a very important trade route from Upper Austria to Bohemia has passed through here.

Its founder was probably Beneš Pyšný of Velešín in the second half of the 13th century. Later, it became an important fortified point of the Rožmberk domain and also served as a prison. Among the burgraves who served here, Čáp of Radonice is worth mentioning, who carried out the reconstruction of the fortress in the 15th century. After the Thirty Years' War, it continued to serve as an economic base. Its adaptation into a manorial brewery was only temporary, and the remains of the fortress eventually became a source of building material for the surrounding area. During the establishment of the border zone, border guards attempted to blow it up. In 2008, the ruins were purchased by the Hrady na Malši association together with the municipality of Dolní Dvořiště, which restored the fortress to its original appearance through a unique reconstruction and opened it to the public.