Hugo Václav Sáňka: the village schoolmaster who locked up the caves

Hugo Václav Sáňka (1859–1929) was the head teacher in Rudice who spent his evenings exploring the Moravian Karst. He was one of the first to search the woods around Rudice for the remains of early medieval ironworks. In 1901 he became a conservator for the Moravian Museum Society and campaigned for cave entrances to be closed off with iron grilles, because visitors were snapping off stalactites and carrying away bones. He also gave the calcite formations found in a meadow near Olomučany the name “koblížky” (little doughnuts), which is still used today. Towards the end of his life he served as chronicler of Blansko. Few people know his name now, yet without people like him we would know far less about the karst.

QUICK LINKS 🧑‍🏫 The teacher from Rudice · ⚒️ Traces of the ancient ironworkers · 🔒 Grilles on the caves · 🍩 The Olomučany koblížky · ❓ FAQ

When people talk about the pioneers of research in the Moravian Karst, the names Wankel and Absolon come up. But around them worked many others who had no university chair and no wealthy backers. What they had was a classroom full of children, a large family and very little money. Hugo Václav Sáňka was one of them.

The teacher from Rudice

He was born on 26 March 1859 in Černá Hora near Blansko. From 1872 he attended the Slavic Grammar School in Brno, but because of the family’s finances he moved to a teacher training college, which he completed in 1879. Straight afterwards he took up a post as a teacher in Lipovec.

What followed was the typical career of a country schoolmaster: Jedovnice in 1882, Milonice from 1884 to 1890, and from 1890 Rudice. He stayed there for 35 years, until 1925, most of that time as head teacher. He and his wife Marie (née Mokrá) had a large family. Their sons Rudolf, Hugo and Karel became a chemist, a literary historian and an educator respectively.

Rudice lies in the heart of the karst, between the Rudice Sink (Rudické propadání) and Jedovnice. For anyone with an interest in nature and history, it was an ideal place to live.

Traces of the ancient ironworkers

In the woods around Rudice you can still find the remains of smelting works where iron was produced from local ore in the Middle Ages. Sáňka was among the first to study them systematically, continuing the work of Jindřich Wankel.

According to an overview of research published in the journal Ochrana přírody (2006), around 1915 he described several ironworking sites in forest areas bearing the local names Nad kapličkou, V pivovarce, V průklestu, Za pazdernou, Žlíbek, Žegrov and Padouchov. His findings appeared in the Časopis Moravského musea (the Journal of the Moravian Museum).

We now know that ironworking around Rudice has a history stretching back centuries, and archaeologists have even uncovered a smelting works dating from the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries. The whole history of ironmaking in the karst is covered in our article The Iron Karst. You can read more about the local ore and geodes in The Rudice geodes, and about the village itself in Rudice.

Grilles on the caves

Thanks to his research, Sáňka was appointed in 1901 as a conservator for the Moravian Museum Society in Brno. He was responsible for protecting heritage sites in the karst, and he took the job literally.

At the turn of the century, the caves were open to anyone. People took stalactites home as souvenirs and dug bones of prehistoric animals out of the cave sediments. Sáňka therefore campaigned for cave entrances to be secured with iron grilles. Today that is taken for granted, and you will see grilles at the entrances to many caves in the karst. Back then, it was a new idea.

He worked with the leading researchers of his day, including Karel Absolon. Besides scholarly articles, he also wrote about the legends of the karst. In 1928 his book Tajemný svět (The Mysterious World) was published, and in 1947, posthumously, Speleologický folklor Moravského krasu (Speleological Folklore of the Moravian Karst), to which he contributed as a co-author.

The Olomučany koblížky

One of Sáňka’s legacies in the karst has survived in geologists’ vocabulary to this day. On Suchá louka (the “Dry Meadow”) near Olomučany you can find unusual calcite concretions: rounded formations that grow inside the rock. Sáňka gave them the Czech name koblížky, meaning “little doughnuts”.

You will find the site under this name in the documentation of the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area Administration: “a locality of calcite concretions, the so-called Olomučany koblížky”. The meadow lies close to the ruins of Čertův hrádek (Devil’s Castle), so it can be combined with the walk described in our article Devils in the Moravian Karst.

After retiring, Sáňka moved to Blansko, and in 1927 he became the town chronicler. He died in Blansko on 6 February 1929.

FAQ

Who was Hugo Václav Sáňka? A teacher, archaeologist and expert on the Moravian Karst (1859–1929). He spent most of his life teaching in Rudice, was a conservator for the Moravian Museum Society from 1901, and was chronicler of Blansko towards the end of his life.

What did he discover in the karst? He studied the remains of early medieval ironworks around Rudice and published his findings in the Časopis Moravského musea.

Why do caves have grilles? They protect stalactites and cave sediments from damage and, nowadays, hibernating bats as well. Sáňka was one of the first people to campaign for closing off cave entrances.

What are the Olomučany koblížky? Calcite concretions from Suchá louka near Olomučany. It was Sáňka who gave them their name.

Where can I find out more about him? The chapter “Rudice head teacher and karst researcher Hugo Václav Sáňka” appears in Ivan Balák’s book Moravský kras: jeskyně a člověk (The Moravian Karst: Caves and People; Správa jeskyní ČR, 2019).

Part of the series Hidden Stories of the Moravian Karst. A similar story: Ladislav Slezák. Sources: Hugo Václav Sáňka (Wikipedia); Ochrana přírody 8/2006, “50 let CHKO Moravský kras” (overview of archaeological research into ironworking); AOPK ČR, Rozbory CHKO Moravský kras (2017), site no. 49 Suchá louka near Olomučany; Balák, I.: Moravský kras: jeskyně a člověk, Správa jeskyní ČR 2019, table of contents; KAM po Česku 3/2019, p. 29.

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