About us
The history of Pottery Yard in Zvířetice reaches back to the Middle Ages and has always been tied to the Zvířetice estate. Both the nearby castle ruins and Pottery Yard once belonged to the Lords of Zvířetice.
Zvířetice Castle once served as a landmark on the trade route from Prague northwards. The ford across the Jizera river just below the castle gave this place its importance.
Long ago Pottery Yard was known as a coaching inn where travellers could rest and change horses. From here merchants chose whether to follow the Jizera toward Ještěd and on to Zittau, or head toward Bezděz and Dresden. The coaching-inn era ended with the building of bridges; the manorial period ended with the abolition of serfdom.
Until the abolition of serfdom the whole village of Zvířetice owed labour to the estate. The patent changed things so much that the homestead was sold on favourable terms to bailiff Macháček, who had lost his post. The Macháček family lived here for generations. The last heiress died in the 1970s, when the local cooperative already managed the property. Later social changes — especially restitution in the 1990s — made a sale possible again.
The homestead was rebuilt as Pottery Yard Zvířetice by Petr Čáslavský and Michal Kořínek. Since 2024 it has new owners.
