Český Krumlov

The bend of the Vltava has been settled since the Stone Age, and Celts and later Slavs lived here before the Vítkovci family founded the castle shortly before 1250; the town is first mentioned in 1253 as Chrumbenowe, from a German phrase meaning crooked meadow. It grew in two parts, Latrán below the castle and the Old Town inside the river bend, with Czech and German speakers from the start and a Jewish community recorded from 1334. In 1302 the castle passed to the Rosenbergs, who made it their main residence, and the town reached its greatest prosperity under Oldřich II in the 15th century. Gold found nearby brought German miners, and in 1555 William of Rosenberg united the two halves of the town and rebuilt the castle in the Renaissance style.

The last Rosenberg, Peter Vok, sold Krumlov to Emperor Rudolf II in 1602. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 it went to the Eggenbergs as the seat of the Duchy of Krumlov, and from 1719 to 1947 the Schwarzenbergs owned the castle. By 1910 about 85 per cent of the town's 8,662 people were German-speaking. Annexed to Nazi Germany in 1938, the town lost its German majority through expulsion after 1945.

Under communism the old town fell into disrepair. Since 1989 most of it has been restored; it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, one of the first in the country, and grew into one of the most visited places in the Czech Republic. The 2002 European floods caused serious damage.

The town's cultural calendar celebrates its past. On the summer solstice weekend the Five-Petalled Rose Festival, named after the rose of the Rosenberg crest, turns the centre into a medieval town of craftsmen, musicians and residents in costume, with jousting, fencing, historical dance and folk theatre in the castle precincts and along the river, ending in fireworks. The International Music Festival, held every July and August since 1992, brings international performers of many genres, and Open Air Krumlov fills the old brewery garden with blues, rock and soul in late June.

The castle theatre, built in 1680–1682 and re-equipped in the 1760s, is the oldest of the four 18th-century theatres in the world that still have their scenery, props and stage machinery, and it holds performances only on special occasions. The revolving open-air auditorium in the castle gardens has staged summer plays since 1959. The painter Egon Schiele lived in the town, and an art centre now bears his name. Film-makers have used the streets for The Illusionist and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Summer on the Vltava belongs to the canoeists, who paddle from Vyšší Brod past the town towards České Budějovice, and night rafting under the floodlit castle is popular. Local legend says the White Lady, the ghost of Perchta of Rosenberg, haunts the castle.

About 13,000 people live in Český Krumlov. Tourism dominates the old town, which is among the most visited places in the country, while most residents live outside the historic core. The everyday town lies in the outer districts of Plešivec, Domoradice and around the railway station.

Industry is more important than the crowds suggest. The largest employers include Linde Pohony, which makes drive and control systems for forklifts, the welding-equipment maker Fronius and two divisions of Schwan-Stabilo, while the hospital is the largest non-industrial employer. The I/39 road links the town with České Budějovice, the regional centre, and direct buses run to Prague, Linz, Salzburg and Munich.

The rhythm of the year is sharply seasonal: crowded summers of tour groups and canoeists, quieter springs and autumns, and long winters when the old town belongs mostly to residents. The northern part of the municipal territory lies in the Blanský les protected landscape area, and walking, cycling and the river are part of local life.

The town's food is South Bohemian country cooking with the river and the forest close at hand. Kulajda, a traditional South Bohemian soup, is made with cream, mushrooms, dill, potatoes and an egg, often a quail's egg. Mushrooms, foraged in autumn, appear widely, and potato dishes and potato dumplings, sometimes filled with smoked meat, are standard. Carp is the traditional Christmas fish, made into a fish soup, and roast duck with dumplings and red cabbage, roast pork with dumplings and cabbage, and svíčková, beef in a thick root-vegetable sauce, fill restaurant menus.

Beer has been brewed in the town since 1336. The Rosenbergs acquired a brewery in 1522 and moved it to its present site in the 1620s, and as the Eggenberg brewery it produced beer for centuries until it closed in 2014; Eggenberg beer is now brewed in Pardubice. In 2016 a small craft brewery, Historický pivovar Krumlov, opened in the old buildings, and the rest of the complex is being turned into a brewing museum. Sweet fruit dumplings filled with plums, apricots or strawberries are a popular dessert.