Mikulčice () is a municipality and village in

Hodonín District Hodonín District ( cs, okres Hodonín) is one of seven districts (''okres'') within South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Hodonín. The main river of the district is the Morava, which geographically divides the ...

in the

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region ( cs, Jihomoravský kraj; , ; sk, Juhomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which trad ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It has about 2,000 inhabitants.

Administrative parts

The village of Těšice is an administrative part of Mikulčice. Mikulčice and Těšice are urbanistically fused.

Geography

Mikulčice is located about southeast of

Hodonín Hodonín (; german: Göding) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 24,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Hodonín is made up of only one administrative part. Geography Hodonín is located about southeast ...

, on the border with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It lies in a flat landscape of the Lower Morava Valley. The municipality is crossed by the river Kyjovka. The Czech-Slovak border is formed here by the Morava River.

History

From the 6th until the 10th century, a Slavic fortified settlement existed 3 km southeast from the modern village on the site called

Mikulčice-Valy Mikulčice-Valy is an archaeological site and a museum with remains of a significant Slavs, Slavic Gord (archaeology), gord from the times of the Great Moravian Empire. The site is located in Mikulčice in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Rep ...

. The settlement was one of the main centres of the

Great Moravia Great Moravia ( la, Regnum Marahensium; el, Μεγάλη Μοραβία, ''Meghálī Moravía''; cz, Velká Morava ; sk, Veľká Morava ; pl, Wielkie Morawy), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to ...

n Empire, plausibly its

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

. Excavations, led by Josef Poulík, unearthed the remnants of twelve churches, a palace, and more than 2,500 graves (including a

horse burial Horse burial is the practice of burying a horse as part of the ritual of human burial, and is found among many Indo-European speaking peoples and others, including Chinese and Turkic peoples. The act indicates the high value placed on horses in ...

). The first written mention of Mikulčice is from 1141. The parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was first mentioned in 1353. At the beginning of the 15th century, a fortress stood here. The fortress was probably destroyed during the

Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, European monarchs loyal to the Cat ...

. The village was heavily damaged by the

2021 South Moravia tornado A rare, violent, and deadly long-tracked tornado struck several villages in the Hodonín and Břeclav districts of the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic in the evening of 24 June 2021, killing six people and injuring at least ...

Economy

The local economy is predominantly based on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

Sights

The

site is the main tourist attraction. It is freely accessible. It includes an exhibition with archeological finds from this area, administered by the Masaryk Museum in

. Since 1962, the site has been protected as a national cultural monument.

Notable people

* Miloslav Balun (1920–1994), pair skater

References

External links

*
Mikulčice-Valy archaelogical site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikulcice Villages in Hodonín District Great Moravia Moravian Slovakia