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Droužkovice
As many archaeological discoveries prove area of today´s Droužkovice was settled as early as 5000 years ago – in Neolithic. Since then settlement could have been observed throughout ancient times and the Middle Ages down to present times. A great deal of significant and sometimes even very valuable findings account for considerable importance of this site in those days.
Droužkovice itself set up probably as early as in 12th century AD. Name fo the village is of the slavonic origine and meant a village of Droužkov people, whereby a personal name Droužek (in Old Czech Drúžek) was a pet name to the word druh (fellow). This name has gone through a number of changes since then – in 14th century it´s given as Druskowes, Druscowicz, Druzcowicz, Druskewicz or Drusskowicz, by end of 15th century German influence is evident as it was written as Drausskowicz, Drauschkowicz, Trausskhowitz and Trauschkowitz, by end of 17th century appeared the name Dražkovice already.
First preserved record on Droužkovice dates back to 1314 when the German Knights Order of Chomutov bought the village and annexed it to its Chomutov dominion. It was in those times that there stood the St. Nicholas church already, nowadays a significant cultural monument. The German Knights Order was successively getting into financial problems and got involved in an argument with the king. When it suffered a defeat in
In 1571 Bohuslav Felix of Lobkovic and Hasištejn became further holder of dominion. He entered in the history of the village through several deeds. First he closed an agreement with Chomutov´s burghers giving them an exclusive right to sell beer in 20 villages of the dominion, including Droužkovice. In 1751 there is issued s.c. Charter of liberties, where rights and duties of Droužkovice are incorporated. The charter guaranteed the village to freely use ways, to graze the cattle both below and down and up the village, to use the field for public welfare and to freely fish in the brook. In addition the village had the right to keep a taylor and a blacksmith for its need, which was mushc advantageous, as it breached a mile right of Chomutov. Not least the charter included also a provision on heritage and serfs´ duties against their lord. These duties included due charges, woked off days and delivery of a certain amount of wood.
Droužkovice had thus relatively a lot of rights, it however missed two significant ones – the inhabitants hadn´t a free right of succession and they were not allowed to move away without prior lords´ permission. Bohuslav Felix of Lobkovic and Hasištejn was however a generous lord indeed, as he had proved by the charter dated December 1571. This was where he significantly adjusted his serves´right of succession in their favour, in addition serves of Droužkovice were assigned the right to go anywhere they like and become serves of another dominion and the charter even includes the clause that in case of violation of these rights by him or by any successor the inhabitants of Droužkovice can approach the king or or provincial authority without this being considered as wilfulness or disobedience. Moreover the charter ensures unchangeability of these privileges, even when another successor takes over tenancy of dominion. On 3rd July 1575 this Lobkovic´s privilege was confirmed by the imperor Maxmilián II.
In addition to all these undoubtedly very significant deeds Bohuslav Felix affected the history of Droužkovice by one more deed – he gained serves for his Protestant faith. After this kindly lord´s death part of dominion, including Droužkovice, was inherited by Felix´s son Bohuslav Jáchym. Immediately after his succession he confirmed all the rights for the village and went on supporting Protestantism. After his wife´s death however he decided to leave and thus in 1588 he exchanged the Chomutov dominion for his relative Jiřím Popelem of Lobkovic´s dominion Mladá Boleslav, Kosmonosy and cash.
Jiří Popel was however a fanatic catholic, therefore he considered it his duty to extirpate deep-rooted Protestantism in his new dominion. Therefore he invited Jesuits to Chomutov, gave them houses where they should have built a monastery with a gymnasium, he left a patronage right for all the dominion churches to them. Protestant oriented inhabitants times went worse. First Droužkovice, out of all surrounding villages, was assessed the highest charge to be paid to Jesuits´pension. More contributed only Březno, Jirkov and Chomutov. In addition there came a catholic priest to Droužkovice, whom the emperor assigned soil, used by local peasants.
Jiří Popel got however in emperor´s disfavour after he had in 1593 criticized in public at the land council the emperor for his unfulfiled promises. For this he was in the end condemned to loss of property, honour and life. The Emperor Rudolf confirmed in 1600, upon request of mayor, deponents and the whole village, all old rights for Droužkovice and as of 1611 there was a Lutheran pastor in the village again. Right after imprisonment of Jiří Popel his dominions were handed over to emperor´s officials´ administration in order to sell them up in 1605. Chomutov bought thus itself out of serfdom and became an independent king´s town, in addition it bought part of Popel´s former dominion. Second part of former dominion, including Červený Hrádek, Jirkov, chateau in Blatno and 24 villages (incl. Droužkovice), was bought by Adam Hrzán of Harasov. Third part was divided among Linhart Štampach of Štampach, Eliáš Schmidtgräbner of Lusteneck and towns Hora sv. Šebestiána and Výsluní. Droužkovice was thus excluded from the Chomutov dominion.
In the following year Adam Hrzán confirmed Droužkovice all privileges, and so did his sons – following holders of the village - in
The Thirty Years´ War that swept over Europe, didn´t avoid either surroundings of Droužkovice and it had disastrous consequences for the village. During the war people suffered from hunger and cold, even plague hit the village which brought about a lot of desolated and destroyed houses. Early after the war however life began to come back to the village. Though there were a number of still unoccupied farms, as early as 1654 here lived 17 peasants und 36 small farmers, nearly the same number as before the war. People made their living above all by breeding of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, also corn was grown here. About early in the 2nd half of the 17th century there was built a school as well and in 1672 manorial nobility set up a landed estate in the village giving a job for 40-50 persons. One year later there was set in a frontier stone between Droužkovice and Březno. This all makes it clear that the village had relatively well recovered from war hardships.
In 1681 died the holder of Droužkovice Jan Adam Hrzán and his successor became his son Ferdinand Maxmilián. He went on in adaptations and decoration of the interieur of the chateau Červený Hrádek, which were very expensive, and thus he got into financial problems. And this was most likely why he began to restrict rights of the village. Demands towards the serfs rose up fast, e.g. duty to drudge with yoke double increased – from two to four days etc. … This was also partly because the mayor in those days wasn´t able to resist manorial lords. Moreover there broke out plague in Bohemia in 1704 and thousands of people lost their lives. Inhabitants of Droužkovice worried about lives of those who kept their privileges, which could have got lost. They put therefore these valuable documents into a stone box in the bell tower wall by the church and walled them up. Only a few people knew of this hideout.
Early in the 18th century there worked a blacksmith, a teacher, 3 day labourers and 2 millers in the village. One had a single-wheel mill on unpersistent water, the other had a double-wheel mill on persistent water. In addition to mills the village had also fishing ponds for five dozens. The 18th century hit however Droužkovice by another war – the village was damaged by war Maria Theresa´campaigns. Droužkovice found itself in debts, population got in poverty and lack. After Bohemia had been struck in the years 1771 and 1772 by critical crop failure, famine broke out. In 1771 the Rottenhans became new dominion holders. They went on rising their serfs´labour duties, however they introduced potatoes in order to avoid famine in the times to come.
Sockage duty for inhabitants of Droužkovice was getting more and more unbearable. Droužkovice citizens wanted to refer to their privileges, but by those times no one already knew where they had in fact been hidden. Not until before death did a certain Paul Berger remember where the charters had been filed. The village thus began to call for its rights. Legal proceedings, which took 9 years, were initiated, the complaint was however finally rejected, even an appeal was useless.
In August 1775 Droužkovice was finally given a partial relief in form of the Maria Theresa´s sockage patent, valid for the whole Bohemia. This patent set up a unique amount and nature of compulsory labours regardless of so far customs, only based on each serf´s wealth. Six years later came on the Patent abolition of serfdom depriving manorial lords of the right to prevent serfs from getting maried, moving away from the dominion or training their children in a craft or sending them to study.
In 1790 local pastures were divided and called since then „portions“. Five years later an old school building was sold. In the 20ies of the 19th century mining activities started to develop around Droužkovice. Droužkovice preserved however its character of agriculture oriented village and coal mining didn´t affect the village too much. In the 30ies though there were opened a few small mines here – e.g. Antonín, Ignác or Filip – they were however after a few years abandoned, with the exception of the mine František, which operated until the 70ies. In 1834 there was built up a parish in the village, including farm buildings. Three years later a local bell tower was rebuilt.
In 1850 communities became self-government units. Also Droužkovice became an independent village. There lived 500 inhabitants those days. In 1865 another storey was built on the new school building. Since 1870 started building a railway line Plzeň - Březno by Chomutov, to which a branch line from Březno through Droužkovice to Chomutov should extend, this wasn´t however built at last.
In 1873 there was established a voluntary firemen unit in Droužkovice, which really was of great need here. In the 2nd half of the19the century the village was very often hit by various disasters. There were at least 10 fires here over 40 years, whereby some fires were really destructive. In addition extensive damage for the harvests was caused by hailstorms and by often strokes of lightnings.
By end of 19th century there were 4 grocer´s shops, 4 pubs, a butcher´s and 2 brickworks in operation here. Also craftsmen were doing well here. There was a double-class school (since 1881), in 1882 overhaul repair of the whole church took place, in 1894 there was built a military firing range here and 1897 also the parish was repaired. The village life went on in a quiet and satisfied manner, all ended however when World War I broke out. Initial belief in short and victorious conflict was soon over and first war measures were then taken. There were introduced food cards, horses were taken away for needs of troops. The village was plagued by ever increasing liable deliveries of corn, cattle, poultry, milk, butter and eggs. Situation went worse, in addition announcements on the killed began to come … End of the war was real liberation for everybody. There came other problems however after the war. The monarchy fell and new states began to establish around Europe. Droužkovice citizens didn´t want to join new arising Czechoslovak republic, Sudeten-German deputies even declared at the Reichstag in Vienna the border area as "independent province Deutsch-Boehmen", part of German Austria. They set up a caretaker government and refused cooperation. Campaign for self-determination of the Germans went then on even after the border area had been occupied by the Czechoslovak Army in November 1918, it wasn´t finished until the Austrian government proclamation on dismissal of Sudeten-German governments was issued on 24th Sept.1919, by which Deutsch-Boehmen ceased to exist. These weren´t the only problems for the village to face. War left its mark on Droužkovice a lot, so there continued problems with supply, with high unemployment. It took long enough before the village fully recovered and life got back on the rails here.
World War II didn´t affect Droužkovice to a great extent. Its course wasn´t any turbulent here, only workers from inland called up to do forced labour were working here and a prison camp was situated here. On 9th May 1945 the village was liberated by the Soviet Army and an administration commission took over government. Shortly after the war there was set up a unified farmers´cooperative (UFC) and later also a state farm, most people however commute to work to industrial enterprises in Chomutov. In the 80ies breeding of pigs and poultry was of great importance at the state farm Chomutov, which made Droužkovice well known far around.
Energy situation required those days using other coal reserves, mining front ought to have been extended thus as far as the border of Droužkovice. This is why 13 houses in upper part of the village (s.c. Rafanda) had to be pulled down in
Due to ever increasing interest in construction of family houses the village provided a locality near Droužkovice outdoor bath, where it had installed service networks. There are a number of new buildings here today. After 1989 there have been set up new private businesses, such as the companies AGRA, RAPPA, butcher´s "U Camprů", and a few small crafts operate here - upholstery, blacksmith´s, car repair workshops. Since 1999 Droužkovice has got its own local embroidered coat of arms, a standard and a flag. On 3rd May 2000 was started construction of relocation of the railway line Chomutov - Praha in the straight Chomutov - Březno, on which will be built a railway stop in Droužkovice. In the same year there passed an overhaul reconstruction of a multi-purpose playground and sand ground designed for beach sports in the bath pool area, in addition cemetery wall and a morgue were repaired. These days Droužkovice are applied to "Village recovery programme" and has finished gas supply service, construction of sewerage network and an up-to-date STP has also been put into operation.
Droužkovice is today a quiet and promissingly developing village.
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Referrences: |
Binterová, Z. |
Droužkovice. Chomutov 2001 |
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Čtvrtletník OM Chomutov – Památky, příroda, život, 1967 - 2001 |
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Heimatskunde des politischen Bezirkes Komotau, 1898 |
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Chytilův Místopis Československé republiky. Praha 1930 |
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Kotyška, V. |
Úplný místopisný slovník Království českého. Praha 1895 |
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Kronika Droužkovic |
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Údaje OÚ Droužkovice |
