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WINE TOURISM
Beyond its strong and prolific
beer industry, the Czech Republic
also holds a deep historical and
cultural connection to wine. To
put its winemaking landscape into
context, vineyards in the country
are currently spread across 1,313
wine-growing sites, with more
than 850 wineries and almost
18,300 growers, concentrated
in two main regions: Moravia —
which accounts for 96% of the
country’s vineyards, with over
17,000 ha— and Bohemia, which
represents the remaining 4%.
Brief history of its viticulture
As in most of Central Europe, the development of vi-
ticulture in the Czech Republic arrived with the Ro-
mans from the 3rd century CE, after the Roman em-
peror Probus repealed the law imposed by Domitian,
which had forbidden vineyard planting across much
of the Empire since the 1st century CE —a very pro-
tectionist measure, though perhaps not the most far-
sighted for an expanding empire.
In any case, it was not until the Middle Ages that we
find substantial evidence of a stable, deeply rooted
winegrowing culture: from farming tools and seeds
dating to the Great Moravian Empire (833–906), to
vineyard donations (1057 in Bohemia by Prince Spyti-
hněv II), and extensive ecclesiastical records (**1195
in Znojmo; 1202 with the Cistercians in Velehrad).
A particularly meaningful date in Czech wine history
is 892, when the Moravian prince Svatopluk gifted a
barrel of Moravian wine to the Czech prince Bořivoj
and his wife Ludmila, to celebrate the birth of their son
Spytihněv. It is the first recorded instance of wine ta-
king on a symbolic and prestigious role within Czech
nobility.
The earliest legislative document to include vineyards
and wine appears in the Bergregal of 1281, the his-
toric mining rights code. This text ensured that the
king, the feudal lord, the vineyard owner, the vineyard
worker, and the wine consumer all had clearly defined
rights and obligations.
But undoubtedly, one of the greatest patrons of Czech
wine was Charles IV, Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire Germanic Emperor between 1355 and 1378,
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