Pelhrimov

Lying in the hills on the southwest reaches of the Czech-Moravian Highlands along the Bela River, the old walled town of Pelhrimov is today a small regional center of less than 20,000. But the town's history goes back to the mid-12th century, when Prince Vladislav II gave the area to bishops from Prague. The original settlement in the area was on the site of nearby Stary (Old) Pelhrimov, but the name was transferred to the area around the St. Vitus Church by Bishop Pelegrin in 1250, but it was burned down by Vitek of Hluboka in 1289. Much of the town that was re-built afterward still stands in the center, surrounded by a circular wall with two towered gates (Rynarecka and Jihlavska).

These gates are actually from a period of construction in the 16th century, after the town came under the rule of the Rican house in 1550. A number of Renaissance houses and a chateau are also artifacts from this period. Adan Ricansky bought the estate from the heirs of Michal Trcka, who took over the town from the Hussites in 1437. Pelhrimov had been a major stronghold of the Hussites, falling under their direct administartion as soon as 1422, just two yeas after the foundation of Tabor to the west. In 1596, Pelhrimov acheived the status of a royal town. The town's other predominant architectural style, Baroque, arises from the reconstruction following a great fire in 1766. Another more recent architectural addition is the Cubist facade on the Baroque house at no. 13, designed by architect Pavel Janak in 1915.

In between the Hussite fortresses of Tabor and Pelhrimov lies the small fort of Kamen (Czech for 'stone'), which features a castle built in the 13th century. Though it's a tiny village of 300 people, the castle was opened in 1974 as the Museum of the International Motorcycle Federation, with motorcycles from the turn of the century, to the height of the Czech motorcycle industry during the interwar First Republic, to later models.