Lace is on the way to UNESCO: where are the most beautiful ones?

Lace is on the way to UNESCO: where are the most beautiful ones?

Fine details, not only from Vamberk

The art of lace-making has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. Vamberk is one of the centres where this craft was successful, but there are many other places all around the country.
Imperial General Kašpar of Gramb lived in Vamberk, in the Hradec Králové region, in East Bohemia in the mid-17th century. His wife Magdalena came from Flanders in Belgium and introduced bobbin lace to the local women. Thousands of local women gradually learned how to make it, and today there is a vocational lace school in the town. Visit the Lace Museum, where you can see some traditional patterns, as well as a modern lace style that represented Czechoslovakia at the 1958 EXPO Brussels and the 1967 EXPO Montreal. The Czechs are hoping to have their bobbin lace inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
 
Another place known for lace is Letovice in South Moravia, where the first factory in Europe opened in 1834. Tylex has been operating in Letovice till this day; the Topak factory is in nearby Drnovice. The residents of South Bohemian Prachatice have also fallen in love with this fragile beauty; there is a lace museum there. Sedlice u Blatné, also in the South Bohemian region, is famous for its century-old bobbin lace tradition. Lace was made there as early as in the 15th century. The traditional Lace Festival takes place there on the first Saturday in August.

Bobbin lace was also made in Moravia, where they used different patterns than in Bohemia. You can learn about the typical lace from this part of the Czech Republic at the Zubří Museum in Wallachia. You can admire the skills of bobbin lace-makers in the nearby Open-Air Wallachian Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm.