The Wall of Češov ( cs, Češovské valy) are ramparts in the municipality of

Češov Češov is a municipality and village in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bord ...

in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It is the largest site of its kind in the country. It was probably built to protect a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

oppidum in the 1st century BC.

Description

It covers an area of 35 ha. The rampart is a maximum of 12 metres high and 55 metres wide, which makes it the largest site of its kind in the country. It is estimated that the material used for building the ramparts could fill 15,000 railway carriages.

History

Historians have been disputing the origin of the ramparts for decades. Nowadays the most common theory is that the ramparts protected a

oppidum. It was built in the Iron Age, in the 1st century BC. A lot of Iron Age pottery has been found in the locality. In the 6th century AD the ramparts was used by

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. At the time of the

Hussite Revolution 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 ...

General Jan Žižka used the ramparts as a fortress, as did the

Swedes Swedes ( sv, svenskar) are a North Germanic ethnic group native to the Nordic region, primarily their nation state of Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countr ...

, who built a newer part of the ramparts during the Thirty Years' War. In the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

the ramparts served as a refuge for local civilians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall Of Cesov Archaeological sites in the Czech Republic Cultural heritage in the Jičín District Buildings and structures in the Hradec Králové Region Tourist attractions in the Hradec Králové Region Cesov