From the website´s homepage
http://encyklopedierokycan.sweb.cz/rokycanyhomepage.htm
one can access total of 12 main sections. The “dějiny města” [English:
“History of the Town”], “architektura” [Architecture], “grafy a statistiky“
[Diagrams and Statistics], “památky” [Sights], “fotografie” [Photo Gallery], “pohlednice” [Postcards], “územní plany” [Urban
planning], “mapy” [Maps], “studie” [Papers and Studies on Rokycany], “literatura” [Bibliography], “odkazy” [Links] and finally “english”, which is exactly the section you stand in
right now.
Now follows a detailed
description of what you find in each of those 12 sections of this website:
1)
“Dějiny města”. From here
you can access the “Dějiny Rokycan v datech” [Timeline of History of Rokycany] button,
which leads you into several separate chapters for each century. The numerals
are international, so no translation is really needed. Once you enter the page, you
will see a comprehensive collection of history of the town, with exact date on
the left side, and the respective event on the right side of each line. The
database is being regularly updated, so you can really witness the history of Rokycany in making. Priority has been given to the “big” issues, such as
floods, fires, battles etc. that occurred in the town, political events (such
as elections, inaugurations mayors etc.) and mainly to the construction
activity in the town. So one can find exactly when was built the town hall,
important houses, neighborhoods, sculptures, or oppositely when was an
important historical house pulled down. Due to multi-faceted nature of the
information collected in this section, it will not be easy for non-Czech
speaker to enjoy wandering the timeline of Rokycany´s history.
2)
“Architektura”. This button leads to one of the most
important sections of this website. You will find here a list of Rokycany´s
streets [Czech equivalent to the English word “Street” is “ulice”,
here abbreviated into “ul.”, so “Smetanova
ul.” means “Smetanova
Street”] , squares [Czech equivalent to the English word “Square” is “náměstí”, or abbreviated form “nám.”,
so “Urbanovo náměstí” means
“Urbanovo Square”] and main districts, plus some
extra chapters [“dalnice D5” means “Higway No.5” –the main motorway in the area of Rokycany, “rokycanská sídliště” presents the
post-1945 housing projects built by communist government, “technická
architektura” is simply “Technical Architecture”, “rokycanské mosty” are “Bridges of
Rokycany”, “rokycanské parky” are “Parks of
Rokycany”, “rokycanské portály”
reports on the beauty of stone portals of the town houses, “rokycanské
sochy” means “Sculptures of Rokycany”, “průmyslová architektura” is Czech
for “Industrial Architecture of Rokycany”, “železniční
architektura” stands for “Railways Architecture”, “rokycanské vodní toky” is Czech for “Rivers of Rokycany”, “chatové osady” chapter describes
the architecture of the weekend-houses colonies that encircle Rokycany and
finally “stavební slohy v Rokycanech” means “Architectonic Styles of Rokycany” ]. In
each chapter you will find a detailed description of the respective area of the
town, with respect to architecture, urban planning and history. Some of the
chapters are under construction, but gradually this huge database is being
completed. One can literally find the history of any building in the town here
and learn of the complicated evolution of Rokycany through centuries. All
chapters are compiled from authentic and often exclusive data obtained by means
of long research in local archives, museum, vintage books etc. The footnotes
are provided.
3)
“Grafy a statistiky”. That
section is less of narration but more of exact data. It contains [as of March 2021]
4 main chapters. The first one, “demografický vývoj města Rokycan”
is a unique chart of Rokycany´s demography. In its 5 columns [“ROK” – English
“Year”, “POČET OBYVATEL” – “Population”, “POČET DOMŮ” – “Number of Houses”, “ÚZEMNÍ
VYMEZENÍ” – “Territorial Delimitation” and “PRAMEN” – “Source”] it offers
almost year by year overview of population growth in Rokycany. Short Czech
glossary might be useful. In the “ROK”/YEAR column, one will find the Czech
names of months of the year. Not many nation of the world diverted from the
internationally accepted names of the months [January, February etc.], but the
Czechs regrettably (for you) did. So if you look for January in Czech, see “leden”, February “únor”, March “březen”, April “duben”, May “květen”, June “červen”, July “červenec”, August “srpen”,
September “září”, October “říjen”,
November “listopad” and December “prosinec”.
“Konec” means “end”, so “1987 konec
roku” stands for “the end of
4)
“Památky”. This section features the buildings in
Rokycany protected by National Authority. You will find register of all existing
buildings that are protected there, plus also those buildings that are no longer protected, because they were pulled down.
This is a particularly sad chapter, since it demonstrates the historical and
cultural loss that Rokycany suffered during the communist rule. Moreover many
more building were actually demolished, those officially protected by the state
were just a small fraction of the total number of houses that had to give way to
the ugly communist housing projects.
5)
“Fotografie”. This section was discontinued due to
limited storage capacity of the webhosting. Photos surely may be of great interest
to foreigners who are not really interested in scholarly data on architecture
and who just want to see the architecture. So feel free to contact me directly
via email, I will happily send whatever pics I have.
6)
“Pohlednice” section may bring some delight to
romantic souls. This is the most extensive online collection of vintage
postcard of Rokycany. This section also documents that Rokycany used to be a
picturesque town before the communists took over. The section is divided into 7
subsections, namely “pohlednice do r. 1918” [pre-1918 Postcards], “pohlednice z let 1918-45” [1918-1945 Postcards], “pohlednice z let 1945-89” [1945-89
Postcards], “pohlednice po r.1989”
[post-1989 Postacards], “srovnání dříve a dnes” [this is a special chapter featuring a recent
collection of postcards comparing town’s major vistas in around 1900 and in
around 2000], “kreslené pohlednice”
[painted Postcards], “speciálni pohlednice”
[special Postcards]. Note that most of the postcards may be protected by
copyright and they are not to be copied or sold. But they have been scanned in
a very modest resolution, so I guess the copyright is well and safe.
7) “Územní plány” is a section devoted to the history of urban planning in Rokycany. In Middle Ages, the town of Rokycany was expanded westwards on systematic rectangular grid, so the western portion of the historical core of the town has pretty regular shape, but the real urban planning began as late as 19th century. This section features several masterplans of Rokycany, namely a 1892 plan, 1907 plan, 1935 plan, 1998 master plan of the Plzen region [with Rokycany as its part] and the more recent 2000 master plan. Unfortunately, those extensive texts are not intelligible without a sound knowledge of Czech.
8)
„Mapy“
section is designed to provide all possible maps
of the town, both recent and vintage ones, both general and thematic.
Quite unique may be the “mapa stabilniho katastru z r.1838” map, the first trigonometric
professional map of the town from 1838. It captured Rokycany before advent
of the industrial revolution.
9)
„Studie“ section features several separate essays
and presentations dealing with some aspects of the town’s history. The
"Soupis památek okresu Rokycany"
features the classic study on the architecture of Rokycany written by Antonín Podlaha in 1900. The Czech text itself may be too
complicated to understand, but the rich section with contemporary photographies and maps is useful without the knowledge of
the language. Just enter the
"obrazová příloha" section at the upper left
side of the page. The “Rokycany za druhé republiky
1938-39” deals with the history of Rokycany in the era of so-called
Second Czechoslovak Republic, between the Munich dictate of 1938 and the final
occupation of the Czech lands by Nazis. It describes the mounting
anti-Semitism, the influx of refugees from occupied Sudetenland region into
Rokycany, the gradual removal of the municipal autonomy of the town and the
advent of totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia, inspired by Nazi Germany. The “Tisíciletý
urbanistický vývoj Rokycan” by J. Kovar is a
classic essay on the history of architecture in Rokycany through ten centuries
of its existence. “Kostel sv. Petra a Pavla v Rokycanech” by F.
Purghart deals with one of the most interesting
building in the town, a house No.117/II that conceals in its walls an ancient church
of St. Peter a Paul. “Růst intravilánu Rokycan” may be interesting even for those who do
not read Czech, because it is mainly a graphic presentation of the growth of
Rokycany´s built-up area since early 19th century. One can clearly see the
massive change that Rokycany underwent, from small settlement into large town
extending across much of the valley. “Historické veduty Rokycan” shows vintage paintings of the town.
10)
“Literatura” section aims to provide basic
recommended bibliography of books and newspapers that have something to do with
the town of Rokycany.
11)
“Odkazy” section offers some useful web links
for those interested in Rokycany. The links have English description so
browsing them should be quite easy.
12)
“English”
section is where you stand right now. It will be regularly updated.