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CHAPTER 5
Case Study 2
The Czech/Austrian border
The area with the remaining fortifications felt very lonely – we were the
only visitors apart from a Czech police vehicle which drove up the road
and looked surprised to see us. Although it was bleak, it was also very
compelling – to see the effect on a community of trying to shut the rest
of the world out.
(Emma, Australia)
My first encounter with the Podyji National Park, in the southwestern part
of the Czech Republic, was through the eyes of someone else. I had been
searching the internet and stumbled upon some pictures from the village of
Čižov that caught my attention. A line of single barbed wire fencing
stretched along the top of a hill and a watchtower stood tall next to it. I
contacted Emma who had taken the photos and she explained how this
place and its history had fascinated her since her first visit and how she has
kept coming back ever since. During the Cold War the area of the park was
part of the forbidden zone that stretched along the border between what
was then Czechoslovakia and Austria. I first visited the area on a cold
December day in 2009. Tourist season was over but occasionally I bumped
into a cyclist or a couple of ramblers greeting me with a polite ‘Dobrý den’.
During season the park is a popular recreational area and with many well
marked paths for cycling, walking and horse riding the park draws a lot of
visitors. Maps and information points inform the visitors about the vast
variety of flora and fauna thriving in the park and how best to experience
them. The fact that the area had very limited access during the Cold War
made it into a safe zone for many animals as well as for vegetation. This has
created a unique flora and fauna that the park is aiming to maintain. Few
people that come to the Podyji National Park reflect on the area’s turbulent
20 th century history. Apart from the fence and watchtower that are left in
the village of Čižov there is little indication at a first glance that this area
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