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Only a few European cities were founded as completely new with a regular and orthogonal structure. The historical layers of the city development are well noticeable. A historical centre surrounded by a younger development is the most common structure. Developing, the core cities would include surrounding settlements into their structure. Some younger settlements were built as city suburbs that in time got annexed by the city. Some existed independently for centuries, just like the core city. These settlements had a village structure and character, including a separate main public space, a village common or a wider street. This contribution analyses the main village commons of one of such places, Stodůlky. It was an independent village up to the second half of the twentieth century. This case study is a pilot study of a dissertation that aims to highlight the specifics of public spaces of village character in city environment through an analysis of a representative sample of historical village commons. Its revitalization is commonly realized employing city manuals for creation of public spaces that do not distinguish between different types of public spaces, and commonly do not respect its specific character and history. Preserving valuable parts of the original structure and character can be helped by declaring the space as a village monument reserve or a “historical core of formerly independent settlements” in the city planning documents. Stodůlky fit into both categories but their village commons were changed multiple times lowering their overall quality. Nowadays, the village commons area is not much frequented and is not that much of an attraction. This case study aims to identify individual changes in the public spaces and their consequences. These changes are identified and analyzed based on data gathered from historical maps, photographs and publications, documenting its original village commons starting from the nineteenth century up to the present-day. Data showing the present state are gathered in situ and using a questionnaire. The residents of Stodůlky district and broader Prague territory were asked about their use of the public space both in person and via the internet. Apart from their current use of the area, the questionnaire also inquires into public opinion on possible future revitalization and uses of such revitalized public spaces. An important outcome was that the village commons are not finding much use of the public areas as it is today, and that the respondents are inclined to revitalization and renewal of the area. Based on these findings, the contribution offers some revitalization possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the work was identification and mapping of a forgotten historical water work from the Renaissance period, Jakub Krčín of Jelčany water channel called Krčínka at Kratochvíle chateau in the landscape region of Netolicko, in its´ historical context. The main research methods were the field and archival survey analyzes of historical map works and the Lidar survey of the territory. The paper is devoted to the description of mapping and documentation of forgotten water work in the former cadaster of Obora, the natural landscape of the Rosenberg hunting ground at the Kratochvíle chateau. In addition to standard field and archival surveys, the above work offers the use of a set of historical archive maps, archival aerial photographs, and modern digital terrain maps using satellite imagery and LIDAR 5G technology. The result of the above analyzes and field surveys is the identification of all preserved and partly functional sections of the former channel, as well as its’ sections lost due to modern forest and agricultural production in times of totalitarianism after 1948. The significance of the achieved results lies in the detailed knowledge of the former function of the channel, connecting the sub-mountain Renaissance fishpond system, that was similar to the Krčínka channel founded by Jakub Krčín of Jelčany. This engineering work, winding along the horizons of the landscape, connected the systems of numerous ponds in the basin of three streams and three valleys, to provide enough water for William of Rosenberg chateau Kratochvíle with richly equipped gardens al´ Italiana. The mapping, documentation, and technical description of the above work thus become an important focus of the local community and the heritage monument authorities and will be used for a comprehensive presentation and interpretation of this unique cultural monument in the context of its natural and historically structured landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our landscape, transformed by people in the course of centuries, is indisputably a cultural landscape. It is a fundamental part of the European natural and cultural heritage, a significant part of the inhabitants´ life contributing to the stabilization of their identity. It concerns a combined work of nature and human which is a proof of development of the human society and settlements in the course of history. The most markedly it becomes evident as composed landscape, i. e. landscape proposed and created by man deliberately according to a given concept. In the landscape structure and its face, the memory of the past and human culture heritage is laid down. Precisely on that score the extent of preservation of the historical landscape structure and its form, as an attribute of regional dissimilarity, is an important aspect of definition of landscapes in a sence of European Landscape Convention. This article represents the newly created methodology of the territory classification from the preservation (not only preservation, but also a specific character) of the historical landscape structure point of view. It connects to the existing methodology of the ancient monuments and historical urban wholes evaluation. The classification of the landscape into several categories (A-D); by the way, it is also possible to complete other ones resulting from the specific properties of the evaluated territory (for example, border landscape, and others), can be a valuable basis for the definition of characteristic landscapes and determination of their target qualities on the regional level, and also for the definition of landscape districts and determination of landscape potentials on the level of municipalities with extended competence. This procedure takes into consideration an earlier neglected phenomenon in the landscape connected with the topic of historical cultural landscape. It works with the current and historical maps as well. On the basis of superposition and comparison of topical and archival maps together with aerial pictures, the existing and extinct components of the historical cultural landscape can be recognized. The method is all-purpose usable, besides the regional planning the outputs can be also applied in the preservation of monuments, the nature and landscape protection or in the land modifications. The application of the method is represented on the particular projects, in which the author participated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]