CESKY KRUMLOV

Settled by Celtic tribes a century before Christ. Since then German and Slavic tribes occupied the area. From 1302 to 1602, the Rozmberks, Bohemian nobles, owned the land and then the Hapsburgs moved in. So the city is a mixture of Gothic, renaissance and Baroque architecture. Because it is situated in what was the Sudatenland, Hitler occupied it. Then post WW II the Allies evicted the Germans and it became a ghost town occupied by Gypsies and robbers. During the Communist years, there was little money available to "improve" the town, so little changed. It has now emerged as almost a fairy-tale village.