Doksy And Karel Hynek Mácha

One of them is to be mentioned in more detail, because it is linked to a Czech romantic poet Karel Hynek Macha. It used to be a wine taproom, which was set up by a Doksy native, Jan Nepomuk Kampe, at the beginning of 19th century on Klucek peninsula, lying to the northeast of Macha's Lake. On the southern slopes of Klucek there were excellent conditions for growing vines. The nearby destinations of romantic wanderings (the not far-off ruins of the Castle of Bezdez, the ruins of Stary Berstejn and Jestrebi) made the Klucek taproom always a lively place. Not only delicious wine was served there, but there also used to be a swimming area with a boat rental in the Brehynska zatoka (Brehyne Bay) of Macha's Lake. In 1825, Antonin Tietze, Jan Kampe's son-in-law and later, after Jan Kampe's death in 1811, the taproom barkeeper, had a summerhouse built on Myší ostrůvek (Mouse’s Little Island), which became a popular for pleasure trips. Boats used to take guests to the island and back. In the year 1828, the summerhouse was destroyed by a gale. The taproom’s beauty spot on Klucek disappeared between 1839 and 1841.

One of the visitors of the taproom used to be Karel Hynek Macha, a jurist at that time. He visited Doksy for the first time in August 1832, being invited by his friend from university Edward Hindl, who was working on the Waldstein farm and lands. The hilly country, full of mysterious gulches, surrounded by hills with castle ruins, deep woods, in which famous highwaymen used to rage was a place close to the poet’s romantic soul. Edward Hindl acquainted his friend with the local myth of the robbing knight Pancir. The barkeeper Antonin Tietze told Macha the tragic story of a patricide caused by unhappy love, which happened in May 1774 in Duba, in the family of a rich farmer, Schifner. Tietze knew quite a lot about those matters, because he was blood-related with the Schifners' family. Macha used the character of the barkeeper in his poem Maj (May). The only witness of the tragedy was the statue of St. Prokop, whose original today stands in front of the Museum of K.H. Macha. In the living memory of local inhabitants, there also used to be the inglorious end of a redoubtable robber, Vaclav Kumra, also known as Czech Vasek, who was apprehended in one of the Doksy pubs in 1798. All these stories and myths, and the lake, which didn't used to be hidden in shady shrubbery at the time, the ruins of the Gothic castle of Bezdez and the romance of the whole region got projected into Macha's lyrical-narrative poem Máj (May). As the author said himself, ‘The plot of the poem takes place near the town of Hirsberg, among the mountains, on which the castles of Bezdez, Pernstejn, Houska and Roll in the distance, point eastwards, westwards, to noon and to midnight.’

After a temporary industrial boom, Doksy returned to agriculture in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Hops from Doksy became a much-sought-after product. Fishpond cultivation and stock raising held good reputations as well. Timber trade and woodworking started to be supported too. In the year 1878 a steam saw was built for that purpose at the northern end of Doksy, near the railway.

At that time Doksy also changed its appearance. After the experience with the fire in the year 1842, when all wooden houses in the square and its adjacent streets had burnt, the newly built houses were already made from stone. In the year 1852 the town hall was built in the western part of the square. In the northeast end of the square, a new two-storied school building was built in the year 1845.

In the 1880's, physicians started to recommend agricultural Doksy, lying in a picturesque woody region near the Big Lake, as a place of pleasant rest, healthy air and curative mud. Doksy was slowly changing and becoming a recreational and bath resort. After the year 1900 Staré Splavy, a village lying on the northern shore of the Big Lake, became also famous for its luxurious residential quarters. Doksy and Staré Splavy gained fame as a bath and recreational resort only after World War I. In guidebooks from the twenties and thirties, this region was referred to as Northern Bohemian Lake Spa, or Northern Bohemian Riviera. In 1928 a big beach was set up on the southern shore of the Big Lake, and its waters started being rippled by the first motorboats. The town’s bathhouse, founded in 1906, offered guests various kinds of water treatment. The most sought-after used to be peat baths. The bathhouse functioned all year round. It was used for treating expiratory catarrhs, nervous problems, sleeplessness and rheumatism. The cultural fulfilment of the attendants was arranged through the services of the library with a public reading room, which used to be on the first floor of the German school in the square. A hotelier, Gustavus Heller, used to run a cinema. Near Cepelsky rybnik (Cepelsky pond) the local amateur theatre club called Karel Hynek Macha set up a romantic natural theatre stage. The building of hotels and boarding houses became widespread.

In the 1930's, a tourist club in Doksy made an effort to connect the places of tourist interest with the name of K.H. Macha. Germans didn’t fancy the attempt much because Macha meant nothing to them. The dispute climaxed with the renaming of the Big Lake to Macha's Lake. The official title of the lake became an object of racial dispute over the border in 1928. In the year 1936, The Nomenclature Commission of the Geographical Committee of the National Exploration Counsel refused to recognise the renaming of the Big Lake. In the same year, the Czech Tourist Club dedicated a monument to the poet K. H. Macha on Jarmilina skala (Jarmila's Rock) above the lake, near Stare Splavy. It happened on the hundredth anniversary of the poet's death, and of the first release of his poem, May.