Dolní Vestonice
Encyclopedia
- For information on the Dolní Věstonice archaeological site, please see Dolní Věstonice (archaeology)Dolní Vestonice (archaeology)Dolní Věstonice refers to an archaeological site near village Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Republic. The site is unique in that it has been a particularly abundant source of prehistoric artifacts dating from the Gravettian period, which spanned roughly 27,000 to 20,000 B.C...
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Dolní Věstonice is a small village in the South Moravian Region
South Moravian Region
South Moravian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia, with exception of Jobova Lhota, that belongs to Bohemia. Its capital is Brno the 2nd largest city of the Czech Republic. The region is famous for its wine...
of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. It is known for a series of ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
archaeological site
Dolní Vestonice (archaeology)
Dolní Věstonice refers to an archaeological site near village Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Republic. The site is unique in that it has been a particularly abundant source of prehistoric artifacts dating from the Gravettian period, which spanned roughly 27,000 to 20,000 B.C...
s in the area. These sites were used by mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
hunters, and finds include a triple burial and the Venus of Dolní Věstonice
Venus of Dolní Vestonice
The Venus of Dolní Věstonice is a Venus figurine, a ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000 BCE , which was found at a Paleolithic site in the Moravian basin south of Brno.-Description:...
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A small fortress was built here during the Great Moravia
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...
period. The place is mentioned in written documents from 1312. During the 13th century the place became inhabited by German colonists. In 1460 it received city rights. From the beginning of the 16th century Habaners (Habáni, members of anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
sects expelled from German lands and Switzerland) settled here. They were expelled again in 1622. Before World War II the village was ethnically German.
Population development
| Census year | Population | Ethnicity of inhabitants | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| year | German | Czechs | other | |
| 1793 | 630 | – | – | |
| 1836 | 766 | – | – | – |
| 1869 | 779 | – | – | – |
| 1880 | 752 | 742 | 0 | 10 |
| 1890 | 826 | 812 | 1 | 13 |
| 1900 | 842 | 835 | 6 | 1 |
| 1910 | 771 | 768 | 3 | 0 |
| 1921 | 686 | 658 | 10 | 17 |
| 1930 | 688 | 642 | 36 | 10 |
| 1939 | 633 | – | – | – |
Although prehistoric artifacts have been found in the area for some time, formal archaeological research started in 1924. The village became a target for tourists interested in archeology, wine, architecture or traditional costumes.