Šumava National Park lies in the South Bohemian Region and covers part of the Šumava mountain range. It is managed by the Šumava National Park Administration.[1][2]
Natural conditions
Most of the territory belongs to the Šumava geomorphological unit and partly to the Šumavské podhůří, which are part of the Šumavská hornatina. Šumava is among the oldest mountain ranges of Central Europe. It rises from roughly 700 m above sea level, with the highest peaks exceeding 1,400 m only on the Bavarian side. Plechý (1,378 m above sea level) is the highest peak on the Czech side. The core of the range is formed by the Šumavské pláně, an upland plateau at an elevation of roughly one thousand metres. The Železnorudská hornatina extends to the northwest. Two ridges run to the southeast, of which the border one belongs to the Trojmezenská hornatina and the inland one to the Boubínská and Želnavská hornatina, and they are separated by the broad Vltavická brázda. The extensive raised bogs are a special feature.[2]
In the Quaternary, glaciers carved distinct cirques, most of which are now filled with water. Frost cliffs, rock walls and slope boulder screes were also formed. The mountain Plechý was also shaped by glacial action. Watercourses such as the Vydra and the Křemelná cut into the rock massif and form canyon-like valleys. On the flat surface of the plains, where water accumulates, lie extensive peat bogs.[2]
Geology
The territory of the park consists of two basic geological units, the Moldanubicum and the Moldanubian pluton. The Moldanubicum is a complex of moderately and strongly metamorphosed rocks dominated by paragneisses and migmatites, into which quartzites and erlans are often interbedded. The pluton is represented by several granite massifs, namely the Prášily massif, the Vydra massif and the Plešné and Vyšší Brod massifs. Among the Quaternary deposits, slope deposits dominate, peats are abundant, and sediments of glacial origin occur only rarely. More resistant rocks now protrude above the surrounding surface as rock formations or massive elevations.[2]
People and the landscape
According to the Park Administration, the territory remained, practically until the modern era, outside the settled landscape and consisted of impenetrable mountain forests with trade routes, a few guard points and older mining centres. The development of the landscape can be divided into several stages.[1]
In the primeval forest period, from the Holocene to the 10th century, the territory was uninhabited or only sporadically settled. In the Middle Ages, between the 10th and 17th centuries, international trade developed along the pack-animal trails, along which settlements with an agricultural hinterland arose. Panning and mining of gold and ores were also carried out. The remains of panning are the sejpy in the floodplains of the streams, and mining left adits, shafts and pinky.[1]
In the 17th–19th centuries the development of glassmaking and ironworking brought further settlement. These industries required large amounts of fuel wood, and so houses of workers grew up around the glassworks and became the basis of the first villages. A colonisation wave of German settlers from Bavaria and Austria arose, and on the cleared areas came farmland as well as glassmaking and logging villages.[1]
At the end of the 18th and above all in the 19th century colonisation reached its peak and the settlement structure became fixed. People made their living mainly from the extraction and processing of timber, systematic felling and artificial forest regeneration were introduced, small water reservoirs called klausy were built for timber floating, and watercourses were regulated. For the remaining timber reserves in inaccessible areas, floating canals were built, the Schwarzenberg Canal in 1789–1793 and the Vchynice-Tetov Canal in 1799–1801. Almost all compact tracts of the original primeval forests were felled in the first half of the 19th century.[1]
The agricultural stage, the period of the most intensive use of the territory, is usually taken to be the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. Practically all forests and a number of peat bogs were exploited, and after the timber reserves were exhausted, agriculture, especially cattle breeding, grew in importance. The Park Administration describes the postwar expulsion of the original inhabitants as the most dramatic period in the history of Šumava, one that interrupted the centuries-old continuity of development.[1]