More than fifty displaced German villages and hamlets were abandoned along the Czech borderland after the end of WWII. Together with village cottages and farmsteads, schools, manor houses and churches also became defunct.
The forbidden zone did not open up to everyone interested in both its troubled past and contemporary look until the 1990s. The conditions for visiting the abandoned villages are ideal in spring, or in autumn when the indistinct remains are not covered by vegetation. Wander through abandoned places as you follow the Czech and German signs; some places no longer carry any traces of former settlement. Most of the abandoned villages lie along local roads or marked hiking trails.
The individual destroyed buildings in the former village of Lučina/Grafenried near Nemanice have recently begun being gradually uncovered; it is a remarkably interesting trip into history (they have uncovered the remains of a church, vicarage, pub, brewery, glassworks and other buildings; the original cemetery is also accessible). Every year, a Czech-German mass takes place on the site of the original Church of St George, which has been consecrated again.
The abandoned village of Lísková/Haselbach in the Bohemian Forest is more known as a border crossing. It is about 20 kilometres from the regional town of Domažlice and almost 6 kilometres from the German village of Waldmünchen (the regional town of Cham). The village was annexed to the Kingdom of Bohemia from the Upper Palatinate in 1708. According to the lexicon of Czech municipalities, the village was recorded as Haselbach in the district of Domažlice between 1869 and 1930. However, between 1950 and 1989 the settlement was not recorded at all. In 1989, the border with Bavaria opened up on the site of a former customs building and a border crossing was built.
The individual destroyed buildings in the former village of Lučina/Grafenried near Nemanice have recently begun being gradually uncovered; it is a remarkably interesting trip into history (they have uncovered the remains of a church, vicarage, pub, brewery, glassworks and other buildings; the original cemetery is also accessible). Every year, a Czech-German mass takes place on the site of the original Church of St George, which has been consecrated again.
The abandoned village of Lísková/Haselbach in the Bohemian Forest is more known as a border crossing. It is about 20 kilometres from the regional town of Domažlice and almost 6 kilometres from the German village of Waldmünchen (the regional town of Cham). The village was annexed to the Kingdom of Bohemia from the Upper Palatinate in 1708. According to the lexicon of Czech municipalities, the village was recorded as Haselbach in the district of Domažlice between 1869 and 1930. However, between 1950 and 1989 the settlement was not recorded at all. In 1989, the border with Bavaria opened up on the site of a former customs building and a border crossing was built.
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