Drought reveals gravestones of flooded village beneath Lipno reservoir
Falling water levels at the Lipno reservoir in Southern Bohemia have uncovered dozens of gravestones from the former cemetery in Dolní Vltavice, a village that was flooded in the 1950s. Experts are now recovering the stones and considering how best to preserve them.
The Lipno reservoir was built on the upper reaches of the Vltava River between 1952 and 1958. Around a dozen villages were completely or partly flooded during its construction, along with smaller settlements and isolated homes.
One of them was Dolní Vltavice, which had stood on the site since the mid-13th century. Its cemetery was flooded along with the rest of the village. The human remains were moved, but the gravestones were left. Now, falling water levels have exposed some of them almost 70 years after they disappeared beneath the water.
At first glance, the site looks like a pile of rubble. But a closer look reveals traces of the gravestones’ original purpose, such as carved crosses. Martin Nechvíle is the director of the Regional Museum in Český Krumlov.
“These stones are extremely heavy. Some can weigh more than half a tonne, so we almost need a crane to move them. When we were recovering the smaller stones, there were six of us and we still had our work cut out for us.”
The Regional Museum in Český Krumlov, together with several other institutions and volunteers, has so far recovered twelve gravestones. Several dozen more are still visible on the exposed banks of the reservoir.
“You can see that an iron cross was set into the gravestone. The cross is broken off, as it is on most of the others. We also found a stone with the year 1849 carved on it. It is about half a century older than the cemetery itself. Unfortunately, we don't know where it came from.”
Researchers have already managed to identify some of the names on the gravestones, Nechvíle says.
“Only one gravestone has an undamaged inscription plaque. It belonged to a little girl who was born in nearby Pestřice, now part of Horní Planá. She died of appendicitis at the age of three and was buried in the Dolní Vltavice cemetery.”
The most valuable gravestones are currently being kept in a secure location to protect them from damage or theft. Experts are now looking for a permanent place where they can be preserved.
“We would also like to recover the remaining gravestones and move them to the cemetery in Černá v Pošumaví. That is where the exhumed remains were placed when the old cemetery was cleared. The current situation is undignified. The remains are lying in a different place, and at the time, the gravestones were essentially treated as waste. We would like to put that right.”
The unusually dry year has revealed other reminders of the past across Czechia. So called hunger stones, which mark extremely low water levels, have reappeared in the Elbe. The Orlík reservoir has also fallen to its lowest level since it began operating, exposing parts of the landscape normally hidden beneath the water.
