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Over 600 years ago, settlers started plotting the locations for the first of the ponds. In the centuries that followed, many generations of fishery laborers and their families moved from location to location to dig these ponds and build the dams. Their clothes were often rags and, though the men may have swallowed many a drink, their able hands built all the ponds that you will come across in this region, from the smallest to the biggest. The outlook of this region was shaped by their hands.
The story told here and displayed in more detail on the display boards along the trail, tells the tale of their achievements and of the history and role of the man-made ponds in the Trebon Protected Landscape Area and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
When the early settlers arrived in the 12th century, this region was still covered in thick forests, cut through by brooks and rivers. In the flatter floodplains, deciduous trees alternated with bogs and marshes.
The Bishop of Olomouc describes a picture of how this region could well have looked at that time:
“… running water twists and turns with many oxbows. Near of them sit deep marshes and treacherous bogs from centuries past with their shifting surface where man can meet a certain death. One wrongly placed step was enough, what the bog swallowed it never returned...”
The settlers cut down more and more of the forests in their continuous quest for ever more space. The forests receded and the settlers started schemes to dry the very wet lands of the Trebon basin. With the help of small dams, the water flow was regulated to prevent inundation of the lands during high waters. The oldest known ponds were small drainage basins that formed behind these dams. The water from the resulting ponds was put to good use. It provided a reliable, year-round water supply for the farmers and their animals, it could be used to irrigate the lands and it powered many small work shops, such as blacksmiths, weaving shops, and lumber mills.
The water management also improved peoples’ health. By draining wetlands and regulating the water flow, illnesses associated with marshes and standing waters decreased markedly. In times of raging wars, the ponds and regulation ditches formed a protective barrier for the local population.
From the start, the ponds were also used as an additional food source. In the following centuries, the importance of fish production increased rapidly and the fish industry became an important factor in the region. The first written remarks about fish production in the Czech Lands originate from the 11th century. In the 14th century, the remarks about fish production were so numerous that we can speak of the first bloom period in fish pond construction. This was largely due to Charles IV, who granted permission to build the ponds and added: “build the fish ponds so our kingdom will be full of fish and water damp everywhere...” Religion also played an important role in this bloom in pond building, the Catholic Church stating that, on special days, meat was forbidden and only fish could be eaten.
At that time, there were numerous such special days! Fish production, however, had now become so large that part of the harvest was exported along the ‘fish road’ that ran from Pisek, through Trebon to the Austrian region of Vitoraz. Important progress in fish production was made at the beginning of the 15th century. Large ponds were constructed for fish production and the ponds were interconnected into production systems, encompassing several smaller and larger ponds. Pond building and carp production had become a common sight all over the Czech lands and the number of ponds surpassed 25,000!
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