When you enter Štramberk, it’s like you’ve entered a magical fairy tale. This is how picturesque Štramberk impressed me. The pearl of the Moravian-Silesian Region will captivate you the moment you see the dominant feature of the town, Štramberk Castle, with its 40m high Gothic tower Trúba, which today serves as a lookout tower and offers very nice views of the surroundings. You will have the historic center of the town at your fingertips. Here, you will feel the old times, the magic of fairy tales and folk tales. It is not for nothing that the town is called the “Wallachian Nativity Scene”.
The mountain town is located on the steep slopes of several hills. It is made up of a labyrinth of narrow streets, where you will find many beautiful half-timbered cottages, which together with historical buildings form the town’s conservation area. The streets are truly charming and I must admit that they completely enchanted me.
ŠTRAMBER CASTLE AND ŠTRAMBER TRUMPET
Štramberk Castle was founded at the end of the 13th century. Only the remains of the fortifications and the Gothic castle tower called Trúba have survived to this day, which rises above the town of Štramberk and serves as a lookout tower with a beautiful view of the Beskydy and Jeseníky Mountains. As we entered the town, the locals called out to us: “So, girls, are you going to see Trúba?” I wanted to exclaim (of course I didn’t): “But we’ll get a trumpet!” :-)And do you know what’s interesting? Historians claim that the original castle had no tower.
WALK THROUGH THE CASTLE
This is a very beautiful walk, and if you like old houses like me, you will be in your element. You will find various winding streets lined with wooden half-timbered houses and stone houses. They still retain the charm of old times.
GOLDEN ALLEY
Below the castle there are 7 half-timbered houses from the late 18th century, a bastion of the city fortification originally from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, a Marian column with the Madonna and a medieval half-timbered well with a winch (the castle’s source of drinking water).
UPPER AND LOWER BAŠTA
This street was created in the 17th century as a quiet pilgrimage street. A procession from Nový Jičín used to pass along it, stopping at the cross chapels, heading to the city and then to the pilgrimage churches on Mount Kotouč. The main Štramberk street is the so-called Lower Bašta, which is parallel to another street, the so-called Upper Bašta. Both streets were named after the Gothic bastion of the city fortifications, which was converted into a residential building and still stands in the street today. There were a total of three cannon bastions in the city.
Because the houses were often located on a slope, they had built-in porches. It was not possible to dig a well in the street, which led to the creation of a formwork fountain between the Upper Bašta and the lower Lower Bašta, where excess water from the well in the square flowed through a wooden pipe.
Many original half-timbered houses on stone foundations typical of this area have been preserved in Upper Bašta. The difficult conditions have created a picturesque composition of poor and richer houses, often clinging to the rocks like swallows’ nests climbing the steep slope to the city walls.
HOW PEOPLE LIVED HERE
The local cottagers made their living from wage labor and crafts. The wealthier clothiers lived in larger houses. In contrast, the weavers’ craft was not as profitable, and their houses were significantly smaller.
CITY CENTER
Upon arriving at Štramberk Square, you will find yourself in a completely different world. The entire square is dominated by 22 Baroque townhouses and the Baroque Church of St. John of Nepomuk.
MUSEUM OF THE WORLD-RENOWNED PRECIOUS PAINTER ZDENEK BURIAN
Zdeněk Burian was a Czech painter and illustrator of adventure books. He was especially famous for his paleontological reconstructions together with Professor Josef Augusta. He liked to hike and go to the Sázava River to the Arizona settlement or to the Montana settlements on the Berounka River and to the Tornado settlement on the Kazín River. Hiking was also of great value and benefit to Burian as a painter, because he spent whole days in nature and could study it at every time of day and year. His nickname – Burka – also comes from these hiking years. He liked to illustrate adventure books. The illustrated titles included books by J. Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, Two Years of Vacation, etc.), A. Dumas (Marat’s Dream), A. Assollant (The Heroic Captain Corcoran), R. Kipling (Mowgli), novels by Karl May (Winnetou, The Ghost of the Prairie, etc.), Jaroslav Foglar (The Boys from Beaver River, etc.), short stories by Eduard Štorch (The Mammoth Hunters, The Raven Settlement, The Call of the Family, etc.) and many others. Today, you can buy some of the books directly at the museum, and you will certainly agree with me that some of them are collector’s gems.
In 1955, director Karel Zeman made the famous film Journey to Prehistory, inspired by illustrations by Zdeněk Burian. Paleontologist Josef August collaborated on the film scientifically.
CAVES OF THE ARROW
A few minutes of walking will be enough to get you from the center to the entrance gate to the National Park, the starting point of the Lašská – Štramberk Nature Trail. It leads through the forested part of Kotouč Hill and, in addition to monuments dedicated to important Czech personalities, you will find the Šipka Cave. At the end of the 19th century, a professor from the Nový Jičín Gymnasium, Karel Jaroslav Maška, found evidence of Neanderthal settlement there. The remains of many prehistoric animals were also found in the sediments here, such as the cave bear, lion, hyena, woolly rhinoceros, mammoth, bison, great aurochs, leopard, wolverine, polar reindeer and elk. The sad fact is that although these rare artifacts survived in the cave for tens of thousands of years, just 65 years after their discovery they were destroyed forever. During World War II, they were kept at Mikulov Castle, where they burned down under strange circumstances in April 1945.
ŠTRAMBERK MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY
If you are too lazy to climb Mount Kotouč, visit the Štramberk Museum of Archaeology. You will find a perfect replica of the real Šipka Cave, including light and sound effects. You will not find the original jaw there, but you will discover 200 million-year-old finds from the prehistoric ocean, as well as many other historical attractions. The museum is located in Zauliční Street, right below the square.
WHAT YOU MUST TASTE – ŠTRAMBERK EARS
If, like me, you are a fan of gastronomic specialties and are looking for delicacies that you simply cannot taste anywhere else, in Štramberk you can look forward to Štramberk’s ears. This delicacy has been baked in Štramberk for centuries, in memory of the legendary victory of Štramberk’s Christians over the Tatar army. In 1241, the Tatars flocked to Moravia along the Odra River. These soldiers set up camp near the city. Along the way, they destroyed villages, set fire to cottages and cut off the ears and hands of the inhabitants as a sign of their victory. The citizens of Štramberk fortified themselves on Kotouč Hill. However, the night before the battle, a violent storm broke out, which the locals took advantage of to dig through the dams of the pond. And there was so much water that it washed away the enemies, who drowned one by one. When the water receded, the people of Štramberk found several bags of salted ears, which the Tatars had cut off from beaten Christians and sent to their khan.
The shape of the pastry resembles the ears that the Tatars cut off from beaten Christians. The dough consists of flour, sugar, honey and several types of aromatic spices, which give the ears their unmistakable taste and aroma. Štramberk ears have even earned one interesting first. They have received the protection of a geographical indication, guaranteed by the European Union. This name can only be used by manufacturers who bake them in Štramberk.
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