When we talk about this house, we should also mention the history of the town. It was founded by Přemysl Otakar II., also known as the King of Iron and Gold, close to an existing Slavic settlement, in the 13th century. The king invited German colonists to improve the demographic situation of this frontier area. He had no idea that this was to determine the history of the town well into the 21st century. Shortly before his death at the Marchfeld battleground in 1278, he ordered the fortification of the new settlement. In 1359, his no less famous grandson Charles IV. granted town status and privileges to the community. The fortifications proved useful many times, first against the Hussites who burned down the suburbs but didn't take the town in 1423, then during the thirty year war when the Imperial army repeatedly tried to take this Protestant stronghold. Only in 1645, the Swedes occupied and sacked the town without resistance. It just so happened that with the above exceptions, these were the salad days of Slavonice. In 1560, a stagecoach station on the Prague-Vienna route was built here, bringing money and prosperity until the route was changed to pass though Znojmo.

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What followed was a long term decline with a short reversal during the first half of the 20th century, and then the dark age of post-war displacement and the sleepy isolation of a totalitarian frontier. And how about Besídka? It’s birth certificate reads: Date of birth – unknown. Unfortunately, most of the documents in the town archives were lost during World War II and shortly afterwards. The beginnings may be guessed at from building history research and the town history. The oldest part certainly are the cellars, probably from as early as the 13th century. When you wander through the underground fountain and toilets area, remember that 700 years ago, somebody else was already looking at the vaulting over your head. The perimeter walls of the house are probably Gothic. A proof is the Gothic frame of the small window between the kitchen windows in the courtyard. Then comes the Renaissance and the year 1547 when the house was reconstructed. The original, probably wooden, ceilings were replaced by cross vaulting supported by stone pillars. The facade was also renovated and decorated by sgraffito. The only sgraffito decoration older than this one is in Prague, the difference a mere two years.

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For some time, the present-day restaurant and carriageway were the largest vaulted space in Slavonice. Very early, though, still in the 16th century, they were separated by a wall. There are fragments of frescoes with German lettering on it. The owner, probably a thankful subject of Zachariáš of Hradec and his wife Kateřina of Valdštejn, had the coats of his lords painted. The sgraffito scenes on the street facade are almost exact copies of woodcut illustrations of Luther’s Wartburg Bible of 1534. Among the Old Testament scenes are the sacrifice of Cain and Abel on top of the gable. Below the windows is Samson tearing a lion apart in the left field; the large field shows Samson slaying the Philistines, drinking from the spring of Ramath-lehi (notice the jawbone of an ass), and carrying the gates of Gaza; in the next field, Delilah is shearing Samson’s locks. The last field on the right shows the drapers’ guild coat of arms with the letters P. P., perhaps the owner’s initials. In the semicircular attic gable above the windows are the ten stages of life from birth to death. The lunettes between the stone corbels show the Old Testament characters Sarah, Job, Aaron, Jacob, Joshua, and Saul.

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In 1992, a part of a depiction of Moses holding the Ten Commandments was discovered on the left side wall. As we pass through to the first courtyard, we will notice a Venetian semicircular gable with a large Renaissance window, restored in 2004. Gothic circumference walls with cross vaulting added in the 16th century are predominant in the back part of the house as well. At that time, the builders didn't pay much attention to the stability of the house, so the vaults were simply stuck on to the circumference walls, without joining them to the original construction. After a few centuries, the resulting cracks were two inches or wider, so the house is nowadays held together with a number of pull rods. As we walk up the two arm staircase to the first floor, we enter an anteroom with a wooden Renaissance ceiling and a restored window to the inner courtyard. An identical Renaissance ceiling construction is hidden under the Rococo and Baroque stucco in the main hall to the right of the staircase and in the room on the left. Somebody blocked a stone framed iron Gothic door within the body of the staircase that was only constructed in mid-19th century.It’s a mystery how the second floor and the attic were accessed before that.

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Another mystery is an underground passage on the second level of the cellar. Nowadays, it is partially flooded and the end is closed up by rubble. Perhaps it was a part of the Slavonice underground labyrinth that is being rediscovered now. Baroque gave stucco ceilings to the house and, according to the prevailing fashion, whitewashed the sgraffito decoration and reshaped the gable cornices. The sgrafitto had to wait for uncovering until the mid-twentieth century. The house faced the greatest danger early in the 20th century when its owner, a hatter named Ferdinand Zimmer, wanted to open a hat salon in the carriageway. As he needed a larger and lighter shop window, he wanted to replace the stone consoles supporting the second floor by steel beams. Fortunately, the house was already on the protected heritage building list and the change was not approved. After the German occupation of the frontier area, Mr. Zimmer was deported to a concentration camp because he was a Jew. He died in 1942 in Majdanek. Mrs. Zimmer later remarried and lived in the house for some time with her husband Mr. Kostroun. They later moved to a housing project and the house stayed uninhabited for 16 years. And then a new chapter began.