Mikulčice

Mikulčice
Municipality
Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Flag Coat of arms
Mikulčice Location in the Czech Republic
Coordinates: 48°48′59″N 17°3′4″E / 48.81639°N 17.05111°E / 48.81639; 17.05111Coordinates: 48°48′59″N 17°3′4″E / 48.81639°N 17.05111°E / 48.81639; 17.05111
Country	Czech Republic
Region	South Moravian
District	Hodonín
First mentioned	1131
Government
• Mayor	Josef Dvořáček Sr.
Area
• Total	15.30 km2 (5.91 sq mi)
Elevation	165 m (541 ft)
Population  (2020-01-01[1])
• Total	1,946
• Density	130/km2 (330/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	696 19
Website	www.mikulcice.cz

Mikulčice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmi.kul.tʃi.tsɛ]) is a municipality and village in Hodonín District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,100 inhabitants. It lies nearby the Slovak border.

Administrative parts[]

Saints Cyril and Methodius monument

Village of Těšice is an administrative part of Mikulčice.

History[]

From the sixth until the tenth century, a Slavic fortified settlement existed 3 km away from the modern village. The settlement was one of the main centres of the Great Moravian Empire, plausibly its capital city. Excavations, led by , unearthed the remnants of twelve churches, a palace, and more than 2,500 graves (three containing African skeletons) (including a horse burial^[2]). The only still-standing church safely dated to the Great Moravian period is found in the nearby Slovak village of Kopčany just across the Morava river. The excavation complex is nationally recognised as the Mikulčice-Valy or Mikulčice Archaeopark heritage site.

The foundations of a 9th-century church in Mikulčice-Valy

The oldest written reference to the village itself dates to 1131, when the village was referred to as Miculcici in Medieval Latin. Both the Czech Mikulčice and the Latin Miculcici are nouns which exist only in the plural form. Mikulčice meaning simply "the people of Mikul (dialectal form of Nicholas)".

The village was heavily damaged by the 2021 South Moravia tornado.^[3]

Economy[]

The local economy is predominantly based on agriculture and tourism.

Nature[]

In the municipality there is a biospheric reserve, containing beavers and storks.

Notable people[]

• Miloslav Balun (1920–1994), pair skater

References[]

Further reading[]

• Poláček, Lumír: Ninth-century Mikulčice: The «market of the Moravians»? The archaeological evidence of trade in Great Moravia // Post-Roman towns, trade and settlement in Europe and Byzantium. Vol. 1. The heirs of the Roman West / Ed. by Joachim Henning. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. p. 499–524.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mikulčice.

• Official website (in Czech)
• Mikulčice-Valy Heritage Site (in Czech)
• Census information about the municipality (in Czech)