Tvoršovice, Czech Republic

Submitted by Carol Claybaker

The village of Tvoršovice is located 5 km northwest of Bystřice in the district of Benešov. Tvoršovice is the name of a cadastral area with an area of 3.88 km. Mlýny is also located in the cadastral territory.

Cadastral areas are the usable agrarian land in a defined area: fields, meadows and pastures, which are allocated in parcels of land to individual agricultural business units. A cadastral map is a map which provides detailed information about real property within a specific area. A cadastral map might be a map of a village which shows the boundaries of all of the parcels or lots within the village.

Tvoršovice (originally Tvořešovice) was first mentioned and documented in writing in 1380, when the local lord Ježek from Tvoršovice appears in the records. Knights from Tvoršovice appear at the fortress until the 15th century. At the beginning of the 16th century, the owner of Tvoršovice was Zikmund Chmelnický from Chmelice, and then a series of owners took turns. During the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648), the manors of Tvoršovice and Líšno were united. In 1664, the owner Albertina from Fürstenberk, died, and Tvoršovice passed to her daughter Albertina Eusebi, wife of Jan Jiří Radecký from Radč.

During the Second World War, the village became part of the military training ground of the Waffen-SS, and its inhabitants had to move out on December 31, 1943. The headquarters was first located in Benešov, and then at the Konopiště castle. In five stages, the majority of the original population (approx. 30,000 people) was evicted from about 65 villages. A smaller part of the population (about 40%) was employed at the so-called SS-Hofs, providing supplying the training ground with agricultural production. German Reich laws applied in the area. An artillery school, a tank grenadier school, an engineering school, a tank destroyer school and an assault gun school were gradually established here. A branch of the Flossenbürg concentration camp was established in Hradištek in 1943. The training grounds were not fully completed by the end of the war.

Tvoršovice is also a castle on the northwestern edge of the village of the same name, by Bystřice, in the district of Benešov in the Central Bohemian region.

Tvoršovice Castle was built in the Baroque style around 1701 by Petr Radecký from Radče . It remained in his family until 1765, when Václav Leopold Radecký from Radče sold it to the Prague miller Náhlovské. During the following century, the owners of the estate changed several times, until in 1868 the manor was acquired by Jan and Marie Schebk. They had it modified in a Neo-Renaissance style and transformed it into a comfortable country residence, as we know it today. In close proximity to the castle, the Schebkovs built an English park and fruit orchards. The castle grounds are protected as a cultural monument. The last owner of the castle before nationalization was Cyril Bartoň - Dobenín, who inherited it in 1947. A year later, the castle was nationalized and adapted for the needs of a retirement home which was placed in it. The castle was returned to the Bartoň family in restitution in the 1990s. At the end of the twentieth century, the company Golf Konopiště acquired the castle, and in 1997, started updating the entire area. They rebuilt the castle into a hotel with a restaurant and adapted the remaining buildings as a background for a golf course.

Currently, the castle is managed by the company Golf Konopiště since 1997. The company has been gradually repairing the castle and the entire area. Today, the castle houses a restaurant, a hotel, and the courtyard is also used commercially for the needs of the golf courses. It has two 18-hole master courses. One is named the Radecký Course bearing the name of one of the former owners, famous marshal of Napoleonic Wars, Václav Radecký of Radec. Since 2002 it has been known as Golf & Spa Resort Konopiště. It is 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Prague and 2 km west of the center of Benešov.

Green Village

On the eastern edge of the village, and adjacent to the 45-hole golf resort Konopiště, a new development of houses and apartment buildings is being built, named "Green Village". According to the plans of the developer, Real-Treuhand Reality, about 800 people could live on the nine-hectare area in the future. (One hectare contains about 2.47 acres.) The urban design of the territory, public spaces, and the houses are the work of the architectural studio monom. By 2021, the first of the five planned stages of construction was completed: 21 family houses were built, including a village and a pond.

Josef Cykanek - My first known or mentioned ancestor was born in Tvoršovice near Benešov.