Hrusice

Hrusice is a village and municipality in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is located about 30 km southeast of Prague and 11 km southeast of Říčany. The population as of December 31, 2007 was 570. Popularized through paintings, ubiquitous Christmas and Easter postcards and children's books by national artist Josef Lada, the name, and appearance of Hrusice has become since 1930s familiar to almost every Czech, which gives Hrusice a somewhat unique position among thousands other villages in the country.

Location

The village is situated in rolled landscape characteristic for the region southeast of Prague. It borders to municipality of Mnichovice in the north, Ondřejov in the east, Senohraby in the south and Mirošovice in the west. The average annual temperature is 7.3 °C and average annual rainfall 620 mm. The accessibility of Hrusice is very good due to proximity of two major transport lines. Highway D1 from Prague to Brno passes through cadastre of Hrusice just several hundred metres southwest of the village (the closest interchange is on km 21 in Mirošovice, about 3 km by car from Hrusice). Mirošovice u Prahy railway station on km 32 of Prague - Benešov - České Budějovice line is about 1,5 km by foot from Hrusice. Trains run each half-hour on workdays and hourly on weekends, a ride from or to Prague Main Station takes up 43 minutes, to Benešov in the opposite direction it takes up 27 minutes. There also operates a suburban bus line number 490 between Strančice and Stříbrná Skalice (via Mnichovice and Ondřejov) with stop in centre of Hrusice.

History

Hrusice was first mentioned in 1205, when Přemysl Otakar I, King of Bohemia, confirmed some local property to Ostrov Monastery. Josef Lada, one of most respected Czech painters and writers was born into family of local shoemaker in 1887. Hrusice where he spent his childhood and the surrounding landscape are reflected in many of his works. The village has experienced a significant growth in recent decade thanks to good connection to the capital city, but its picturesque skyline is still well preserved, which makes Hrusice with dense net of marked hiking paths a favourite destination for family trips from Prague.

Population

According to the 2001 census. the population was 382, almost exclusively Czechs with two people declaring themselves to be of Slovak and German ethnicity. 63% of population was without religion, 24% belonged to Roman Catholic Church, 1% to other religious groups, 10% gave no response.

Sights

• Church of Saint Wenceslas in centre of the village is an example of rural Romanesque architecture from turn of 12th century with a valuable sandstone portal, a work by monks from Sázava Monastery.
• Josef Lada Memorial in artist's villa in southern end of Hrusice, nowadays a branch of Prague-East Regional Museum, presents his life and work as well as his daughter Alena Ladová, also a renowned illustrator.

Gallery

References

External links

• Municipal website
• Brief tourist info