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Dear Friends,
South Moravia is a piece of land as small as a child’s palm. However,
it is also as cosy, friendly, and safe. Cosy for its hillsides
covered with sunshine and vine plants; friendly for the nature of
its people who in deep wine cellars have put the spell of sunshine
into the wine; and safe for the impregnability of its fortified
castles built by its kings on the eastern frontier of the lands of
the Czech Crown.
We want to invite You to these places as a venue for the forthcoming
meeting of specialists. We have chosen
Znojmo, the royal town, as
the meeting-place for the 2004 Congress of the Czech Orthodontic
Society.
We have not done so by coincidence. Already the stone-age people
settled on the banks of Dyje, river rich in fish, with the
surrounding forests plentiful of game. The Celts laid the
foundations of their oppidum here; perhaps even merchant Sámo went
through this area with his company. Great-Moravian dukes built a
defense fortress belonging to their empire in Hradiště. Duke
Rastislav invited Constantin and Method, who brought the first
lettering, and thus he started the most significant era of our
culture. Later the great Přemyslid Břetislav I. displaced both
secular and church administration from Hradisko to a headland across
the river, locating here also the seat of the apanage prince. He
built a grand parish church there, St. Virgin Mary’s rotunda, whose
walls represent the most complete set of pictures of the Přemyslid
dynasty members. At that very place, in the 11th century, king
Přemysl Otakar I. granted Znojmo royal town status.
While strolling down the streets of Znojmo, please bear in mind that
Lady History was dwelling here together with the most brilliant
personalities who formed Her. You will be walking around the same
places as Václav II., Přemysl Otakar II. or Jan Lucemburský (John of
Luxembourg), by the grace of God kings of Bohemia, John with his
graceful wife Eliška and later together with their son, margrave of
Moravia and viceking of Bohemia, Karel (Charles IV.). Jan
Lucemburský gave away his youngest daughter in Znojmo; after all,
quite a few remarkable things happened here before our congress.
South Moravia is a piece of land as small as a child’s palm. Please
accept our invitations.
Yours Karel Floryk, on behalf of the
organising committee
ZNOJMO PHOTO GALLERY
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