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History of Dýšina
The village of Dýšina is situated 10 km northeast of Pilsen. The settlements of Nová Huť and Horomyslice which is also located in the same area and they lie in the valley of the river Klabavka. History of Dýšina is a bit longer than Pilsen´s history. Dýšina was established in 1242 under the rule of Přemyslovci royal family. Even at that time an early Gothic church became a dominant of the village and there was built a historical centre around it. The church was then after a big fire in the 17th century reconstructed in a baroque style by the Diezenhofer manufacturing company. The pastorate and farmhouses in the middle of the village were then also built in rustic baroque style.
Dýšina has never been only just a typical agricultural village. The iron industry has a big influence here. The surroundings of Dýšina has always been quite rich in iron ore. In the 17th century there were built foundries in Nová Huť and Horomyslice and iron-mills sprung up on the Klabavka River . That’s why Dýšina is an industrial village nowadays and loses its rural character.
In the 1950s mining and processing of iron ore were regenerated. A big concern grew up but it was not profitable and it was destroying the environment in the area.
In the year 1967 the production was stopped and in the area different factories arose. Thanks to this industrial development the population of municipality increased. Today the municipality has a total of 1473 inhabitants. The village is connected with the city of Pilsen by public transport and by railway that runs from Prague to Pilsen.
After the year 1989, Dýšina has been trying to become a municipality where people would live well and become a modern village keeping its historical center, this idea would be the village first big effort.
Formation of the municipality and its name, first was mentioned
Name „ Dejšina" is in its origin an adjective and people thought its meaning was the same as “village”. This adjective comes from a personal name Dýcha, which means a man, who breathes deeply, huffs, puffs or wheezes. Because old Czech language followed the ending “a” which means feminine gender, that’s why the name was created from “dýchá” (=he/she breathes) – Dýšina. Original name then was Dýšina – that means Dýchov´s village – who based and settled the village. In common terms it was called Dejšina.
Village of Dejšina and village of Chrást were presented by king Wenceslas in year 1242 to Chotěšov monastery as a reward to provost Zdislav. In tax register from year 1379 you can read that the village of Dejšina pertained and belonged to several gentry owners and also to a pastor.
A bill from year 1386 says that there were several farmers in Dejšina and documents from year 1401 says that Lipolt from Osek sold Dejšina to the people who where settled there and enumerates there 18 farmers and a blacksmith with a piece of land.
Modern history:
St. Simon´s and Judy´s Gothic church was sainted by Prague bishop in the year 1328 to the glory and praise of the Holy Trinity. It was recorded as a parish church in registers of popish tithes in the year 1352 and the church had to pay one three - score coins. Since that time the church has been reconstructed and some additional building have grown up there.
It is a single-aisle church with two towers in the western face of the building, spiral-staircase and antechapel with narrowed presbytery polytonally ended and with rectangular vestry on its southern side. From the outside the church is divided by simple support structures, longitudinal Gothic ledge and rectangular windows ended with semicircular arches.
In the chapel there are windows with lancets which are semi circularly which have been bricked up. The arc aisle is arched with semicular vault. Narrower presbytery is separated by high triumph arch from the sides. One gore of the cross vault and beams has pyriform shaped groins. The vestry is crisscrossed wisely with Gothic arch brickwork.
The brickwork with supports and ledges, presbytery and vestry are original. In the second half of the 17th century the church was modified in Baroque style. The aisle vault, face of the vault with two towers and antechapel were built. On the steeple was placed a clock, which were later transferred to a tower of a new school building in 1818. The third turret of the church was made in the 1800.
The high altar from 1666 was built in an Early Baroque style and it has a nice statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus from 1723. The painting of the Holy Trinity is from Jan Herzog from 1851. Other altars are from earlier ages and are mostly donated. The second organ is from 1753 and today two - manuals modern organ is hardly in any other country church. The equipment of the church is from the 18th a 19th century.
Dýšina´s church gave the whole parish settlement and surroundings special character and the result is a beautiful landscape picture, man’s sense of beauty together with harmony and beauty of nature.
Schools of Dejšina
The oldest mentions of the school are not known exactly. The children were taught at the pastorate, at the bailiff or by the family.
The first mention of school says that the old school was standing near the church and it was all made of wood and with a shingle roof. But it was necessary to think about building of a new school, because this old school was not attended only by children from Dejšina but also from Chrást, Kyšice, Červený Hrádek, Hořemyslice and Nová Huť.Then the bailiff Václav Čechura was an extremely intelligent man. He built a new house for the local blacksmith Ženíšek on his property and at his own expenses in Podchalupy so that the school could have been built on the village square. Then the bailiff got from Pilsen patronage in return for it an old school with address number 43 and also the old smithery was tore down and on its place was built the new school in 1818.
The foot stone to the new school was placed on 13 April 1818. The school was built during the same year and it cost 6 062 quid and it was given an address as number 2. During this time that the school was constructed there wasn’t any other buildings in the surrounding area as to where the school was built.
In 1819 Dejšina School was visited by the Earl of Kolovrat, monsieur of Březnice, Czech Maecenas, writer of folk lore and also a popular aristocrat who was mentioned in a book “Pohorská vesnice” written by Božena Němcová. Also it was visited by Kašpar from Šternberk, writer, Maecenas and one of the founders of the National Museum .
The bailiffs of Dejšina and Chrást suggested to name the Dejšina School after Kolovrat and in Chrást after Šternberk and finally the name were adopted.
The second school existed for 149 years. For security reasons it was destroyed in 1967.
The third new school was opened in 1958 and still remains open today for children from Dýšina. The total cost of the new school was 3, 37 million crowns.
Iron industry in Dejšina
The surrounding area of Dejšina was quite rich in iron ore which has been mined there. These areas were created in ancient times, when the Pilsen region was under water, when different animals and plants that now are distinct and man did not exist here. This was beginning of the primary history together with the Silurian age.
In Kokotsko the iron ore had already been mined for nearly 400 years. It was smelted in Nová Huť, where the foundry ceased production in 1679 and was moved to Horomyslice. The iron ore mined in Kyšice (in Šlemovna) was taken to Klabava and Rokycany, mining in Kyšice ceased production during The Thirty Years´ War. The biggest development of the iron industry was in 17th century, when the city of Pilsen opened an iron mine in Ejpovice, built a foundry in Horomyslice and iron-mills near Doubravka in Hradiště and Nová Huť. Due to this the population in these areas increased considerably, because of work that was provided by the iron industry. Masses of proletarians were made up to fill these jobs in companies who received low wages, worked in bad conditions and came from the lower class of society. Worse situation was working for the aristocrats, because sometimes people had to work for no salary.
The ironworkers usually originated from the lower class of poor people, whose lands had been taken from them, many had pieces of lands given to them that were not suitable for their survival. Many ironworkers families handed down to their descendants the skills and craft that were a part of their tradition (for example Cígler-Hájek). Then came the dominance of iron craftsmen and workers in the villages living in the 19th century, 163 small companies in Dejšina, Nová Huť and Horomyslice to which were 19 involved in agriculture, 9 in crafts (cobblers, tailors, etc.) and 134 other companies that were iron ore related.
The foundry in Dejšina (Horomyslice) was established on 25 August 1678 and 63 workers were employed there. In 1885 it produced 8 169 quintals of cast-iron and 3 989 quintals of raw iron and in order to make this type of production was used 37 724 quintals of iron ore and 253 076 cubic meters of wood coal. Dejšina´s workshops had 4 iron-mills with 4 furnaces and 2 other iron-mills. 34 workers used 3 114 quintals of glance coal per year.
Wages in the Pilsen region in 1690:
Miner got for one wheel-barrow 3 kreutzers
Woodcutter for cutting one cord of wood 7 kreutzers
Coal mine worker for mining one tender 10 kreutzers 3 ducats
Semi-skilled worker per one week 8 gold coins 4 kreutzers
Journeyman per one week 8 gold coins 4 kreutzers
The price of iron was not fixed, because of the superior iron that was from Štýrsko in Austria . Prices came from the smelters and different prices from the cities, where the iron had to be transported and also taxes and duties had to be paid. The aristocracy, who was producing the iron, had iron stores in the cities. The iron was also bartered or debts were paid with it. In 1693 the Royal Chamber ordered the people living in Rokycany to send iron for the value of 2 000 gold coins to the Earl of Waldštejn as a refund for expenses, that he had in his function as the Caesarian messenger to Spain. The iron was also used as a bargaining tool for regional supervisors and officers of the Royal Chamber, craftsmen or people affected by natural disaster got it as an incentive. Iron was also often used as a wedding gift!
In 1858 foundries in Horomyslice and Nová Huť were leased for 10 years. After 10 years they were controlled by the city which received large revenues from them. In 1869 the foundry in Horomyslice was enlarged and their revenues grew to 10,000 gold coins. The owner at the time Matěj Salcman also built another foundry in 1876, he received citizenship from Dejšina and he donated to the local council 50 gold coins. His nickname was “Šmelcmatěj”. Then production ceased for some time and in 1908 revived by producing special fire-proof cast iron. These cast iron moulds were exported to large companies all over Austria . After World War I. The foundry was controlled by engineer Ed. Salcman, later by his son and during 1933 the production started to diminish and finally ceased. While tearing down the old foundry in Horomyslice in 1925 an archstone with the head of an angel was found with the date of 1631 on it. Work in iron-mill in Nová Huť ceased in 1868, when after long disagreement the city of Pilsen received a flour mill from the owner Josef Bílý from Horomyslice and in return he received an iron-mill in Nová Huť together with a meadow Kytín about 18 hectares and a field of 24 hectares. The flour mill could not have any license and was inoperable due to not having any water that was being all used by the iron-mills in Horomyslice.
On the site where used to be iron-mills in Nová Huť was built a modern mill for flour which was put into production.
The legend of the stone
On the farm called “U Blahošů” there was a big stone in the yard which was in the way. One day on Green Thursday a big storm came. The farmer was thinking how to remove the stone and he said angrily: “Let the devil take the stone!” Then later he heard a big bang and in front of the surprised farmer appeared the devil asking him a question: What do you wish for? The farmer said to the devil to take the stone to the Kokot ponds tomorrow, before the priest stops singing Passionate songs in church. The devil promised to him with a condition that the farmer gives him his soul. The farmer agreed because he wanted to get rid of the stone. Next day the devil appeared with a big noise, took the stone and raised it up to the sky. When he got above Horomyslice the stone fell out of his hands into the river of Klabavka . He was delayed. The people in the church just stopped singing Passionate songs. The devil threw the stone at the last moment to where the stone stays today – this place is called Sharp stone (Ostrý kámen) today. So the farmer got rid of his stone and his life was saved. For those who do not believe this story, let them ask in Dýšina or call the devil.
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Translated by Global Joint Translations
Veronika Burešová and G. Jerry Toole
www.gjt.cz
