Tachlovice

Gazing across the flat expanse of the Prague Plateau, can you envision an ancient tropical sea teeming with life? Right here in Tachlovice, millions of years ago during the Silurian period, this landscape was submerged beneath warm waters. Imagine bizarre creatures like brachiopods, trilobites, and nautiloids swimming amidst corals and sponges. Their fossilized remains, embedded in the limestone deposits, whisper tales of a prehistoric world. Tachlovice’s very name echoes in the scientific designations of fossils like *Favosites tachlowitzensis* and *Tachloconcha interrupta*, discovered by the renowned paleontologist Joachim Barrande. His findings, now housed in the National Museum in Prague and other institutions worldwide, connect Tachlovice to a distant past. Even the Tachlovice Fault, a significant geological anomaly stretching from Beroun to northeast of here, bears the village’s mark. Fast forward to 1234, the year Tachlovice first appears in written records. Originally known as Taklovice, meaning “the village of Takl’s people,” the name evolved over the centuries. Today, Tachlovice is a municipality and village in the Central Bohemian Region, home to around 900 inhabitants. While no major roads traverse the village, and the nearby railway lies unused, a vibrant community thrives here. The Baroque Church of Saint James the Great stands as a testament to the village’s rich history, a cultural monument blending Gothic remnants with 18th-century architecture. Another local treasure, the Tachlovice White Willow, boasts an impressive 773 cm shaft circuit, one of the largest in Bohemia. But perhaps the most distinctive event in Tachlovice is the annual Tachlovice Triangle. Organized by the Veteran Car Club Tachlovice, founded in 1960, this exhibition and contest showcases vehicles manufactured before the 1970s. A tribute to the club’s founder, Jan Horák, the event fills the village common with classic cars, some of which compete on a designated triangular route. Tachlovice, a village where ancient fossils meet vintage cars, offers a unique blend of history and heritage.