Projects

2018 - 2022

Towns belonging in the past to the Bohemian queens, so-called royal dowry towns (more stably Hradec Králové, Chrudim, Vysoké Mýto, Polička, Jaroměř, Dvůr Králové, Trutnov, Nový Bydžov, Mělník), are a special category among Czech historical towns in a number of perspectives. With the exception of Mělník, they comprise a specific geographic enclave in East Bohemia. The institution began to form at the beginning of the 14th century and went through a complicated development. Dowry towns became a source of incomes of the queens and in the case of medieval Hradec and Mělník for a time the residence of several of them. De iure, the institution of dowry towns ended in 1918. The reflection of their historic charisma was revitalised in the 19th century during the national revival and lives until now as one of the pieces of the identity of these towns in relation to the other towns of the CR. The main objective of the submitted project is in accordance with the specific aim of 1.1 applied research and experimental development aimed at presenting this exclusively Czech historical phenomenon to the general public through the tools of historical geography and advanced computer graphics. The main outputs of the project will be a dedicated mobile application and a web portal that will serve as a specialized historical guide to the dowry towns and their urban landscape and specialized (reconstruction) maps of the entire regional enclave and the towns themselves. In the case of Hradec Králové, the guide will provide the possibility of 3D travel over time on the basis of so-called expanded virtual reality, incl. 3D reconstruction of already destroyed urban complexes and examples of period life. For Dvůr Králové, Jaroměř, Polička, and Vysoké Mýto, the volumes of the Historical Atlas of the Czech Republic will be created as other main outputs of the project. Along with the secondary outputs, a collection presenting the dowry towns to the lay and professional public will be fashioned. A