Telč

Local legend dates Telč to 1099, but the first written mention is from 1335. Its name comes from Teleč, formed from the personal name Telec, meaning "young calf". In the mid-14th century the town gained a Gothic castle, Gothic houses and a water fortification. The Hussite Wars ended this first period of growth: the Hussites took the town, though the castle held out.

Prosperity returned under Zachariáš of Hradec, who acquired the estate in the middle of the 16th century. He had the medieval castle rebuilt in the Renaissance style and the Gothic houses on the square remodelled as Renaissance houses with arcades and decorated façades — the uniform ensemble that defines Telč today, many of whose gables were later reworked in the Baroque style. The Swedish army briefly occupied the town during the Thirty Years' War. The Counter-Reformation brought the Jesuits, who built the Church of the Name of Jesus in 1663–1667 and founded a Latin grammar school; their order's rights were cancelled in 1773.

In the 18th century wealthy townspeople paid for statues, fountains, chapels and a Marian column, and from 1785 the town was Germanised. Industry arrived in the 19th century and the railway in 1898. A Jewish community built a synagogue east of the square in 1904; the building survives, along with the Jewish cemetery. Because the ponds kept the town from spreading, the historic core came through largely intact, and in 1992 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Telč is above all a monument town. Its square, protected houses such as the Telč House and the house U Šeniglů, the castle and its Jesuit churches make it one of the most visited places in Czechia by foreign tourists. The setting has long attracted film-makers: Vojtěch Jasný shot The Cassandra Cat here in 1963, Werner Herzog filmed Woyzeck in the town in 1979, and many Czech fairy-tale films were made at the castle, the best known being The Proud Princess (1952) and Z pekla štěstí (1999).

Music is the town's main festival. Prázdniny v Telči ("Holidays in Telč") has been held every year since 1982, at the turn of July and August, and is one of the oldest music festivals in the country. The town also has an arts school, a gymnasium named after the poet Otokar Březina, waymarked nature trails dedicated to him, and links with twin towns that include Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany and Figeac in France.

Everyday manners are the Czech ones: a greeting of "Dobrý den" on entering a shop and "Na shledanou" on leaving, beer ordered by the half-litre, and quiet respect inside churches that still serve their parishes. The Jesuit legacy and the many Baroque statues and chapels reflect the strong Catholic history of this part of Moravia.

About 5,100 people live in Telč, a figure that has changed little over the past century — the 1930 census counted around 4,300. The municipality is made up of five parts, one of which, the village of Studnice, is an exclave separated from the rest of the town's territory. The town's economy depends on tourism.

Because the ponds kept the medieval town within its walls, the newer streets where many residents live lie beyond them, in areas such as Štěpnice, the streets by the railway station and Staré Město. Within the centre, the ground floors of the Renaissance houses on the square are largely given over to shops, galleries, cafés and guest rooms.

Telč is also a small centre of learning. Masaryk University runs a university centre here and the Czech Technical University a teaching centre, and the town has a gymnasium, a secondary vocational school, two primary schools and an arts school. The rhythm is that of a Czech country town: an early start, a hot lunch in a pub or canteen, and quiet evenings outside the summer season, when coach parties have left and the square empties.

The town's kitchens serve the Czech staples. Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage (vepřo-knedlo-zelo), often called the most typical Czech dish, and roast duck (pečená kachna) with bread or potato dumplings and braised red cabbage fill pub menus. Knedlíky, bread dumplings steamed and sliced like bread, are one of the mainstays of the cuisine. Bramboračka is a potato soup with onion, carrot, root parsley and celeriac, spiced with caraway, garlic and marjoram, and kulajda, a creamy soup of mushrooms, dill, egg and potatoes, comes from neighbouring South Bohemia.

The fishponds that frame the town are part of a long Czech tradition of fish farming. Fish, mostly trout and carp, is commonly eaten at Christmas, when fish soup made with carp is a traditional dish, and braided vánočka buns and many kinds of Christmas biscuits (vánoční cukroví) are made for the season.

Beer culture was added to the national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2025. Most Czech wine comes from Moravia, and Moravian drinks include burčák, a low-alcohol, partly fermented grape must, and slivovice, plum brandy. Koláče, sweet yeast pastries usually round in shape, are a traditional treat at village feasts and weddings.