Zelená Hora: Hillfort, History and the Haná Landscape

Zelená Hora combines landscape and history in an unusually concentrated way. The locality lies largely in the summit areas of the Drahanská vrchovina and at the same time tells the story of a prehistoric hillfort, a medieval castle and a community whose residents were forcibly resettled in 1941. For your travel planning, this creates not an interchangeable landscape, but a destination with several temporal and geographical layers.

Landscape between Drahanská vrchovina and Haná

The location in the summit areas of the Drahanská vrchovina shapes the character of Zelená Hora. Nad Bochtálem offers a particularly strong connection with the landscape: during the interwar period, two windmills stood there. After the community was resettled in 1941, they were gradually dismantled. Today, the site offers beautiful views over the Haná landscape. The former windmills and their later dismantling thus stand in historical contrast to today's views over the Haná landscape.

For your choice of accommodation, this means that Zelená Hora mainly appeals to travellers who want to combine their stay with impressions of the landscape and local history. Rather than a long list of individual attractions, the focus is on the relationship between elevation, views and historical development.

An archaeological site with several layers

The Zelená Hora archaeological area is an important archaeological site. It includes a 1.1-hectare prehistoric hillfort on a triangular promontory above the Pustiměřský potok stream. It was fortified with a rampart and a ditch. This specific location and the surviving description of the fortifications make the hillfort an accessible way to explore the early history of the locality.

The archaeological history does not end with the prehistoric site. A stone castle was built in the archaeological area in the mid-13th century and was probably abandoned as early as the 14th century. Visitors to Zelená Hora can therefore view the site as a succession of different settlement and fortification periods: first the prehistoric hillfort, later the stone castle and alongside them the recorded history of the more recent community. It is precisely this succession of periods that gives the destination its particular cultural appeal.

From cleared forest to community

Zelená Hora was officially founded in 1763. Woodcutters had built six houses in a section of cleared forest that Bishop Maxmilián, Count Hamilton, had donated. The founding story therefore identifies not only a year, but also the locality's specific starting conditions: forest clearance, woodcutters and a small number of first houses.

The town's history also includes the severe rupture of 1941. The inhabitants of Zelená Hora were forcibly resettled and returned after the Second World War in 1945. Another visible historical detail can be found in the village square, where there is a sandstone cross dating from 1869. Together with the hillfort, the abandoned castle and the history of the resettlement, it forms a dense network of themes that makes Zelená Hora legible as more than just a landscape name.

If you would like to explore other places in the wider area alongside Zelená Hora, you can find Heršpice, Podbřežice, Ruprechtov, Letonice, Křižanovice, Hoštice-Heroltice, Drysice and Kozlany here.

For the wider travel overview: Vyškov District.