Klokočka, Hunting Legends

The historical tales in this book could have happened, or perhaps they really did. They unfold in specific, real-life locations, and the methods of hunting and gamekeeping described within are accurate for the respective era and were commonly used in the Klokočka game reserve—and beyond.

The Klokočka game reserve, which plays the main role in this book, genuinely exists. The local forests have always had a high concentration of game, a fact exploited by the Wallenstein family, who resided at the nearby Mnichovo Hradiště château. From the mid-1670s, they gradually fenced off this area, building game traps, hunting facilities, and hunting lodges, which over time became forester's lodges. To this day, in certain parts of the reserve, one can still recognise its original Baroque layout—star-shaped clearings, a pond for aquatic par force hunting, and ancient solitary oaks intended for hunters' rendezvous. The reserve, which was home to red deer, fallow deer, and mouflon at various times, remained in the possession of the Wallenstein family until 1945. The reserve now belongs to the Forests of the Czech Republic, which has been leasing it to private tenants for hunting purposes for almost thirty years.