"Ho sedmi větrů" and Below Kojál: The Field Names and Legends of Senetářov

Every field, meadow and patch of woodland around Senetářov has its own name. You won’t find most of them on maps; they were handed down by word of mouth, generation after generation. The local-born Alois Zukal wrote them down in his book Historie Senetářova (The History of Senetářov), and the dialect forms are also recorded in the Dictionary of Place Names in Moravia and Silesia (Slovník pomístních jmen na Moravě a ve Slezsku), compiled by the Institute of the Czech Language. The names tell you how people here made a living (bricks from vepřovice clay, mother-of-pearl buttons, charcoal), where the boundaries ran and what people feared: on Kojál, they say, the ghost of Kojálovský still roams, a man who moved boundary stones in his lifetime.

QUICK LINKS 🗣️ Why “Ho” · ⚒️ Names that tell of work · 👻 Names with a legend attached · 🌄 Names with a view · 🌲 Woodland and German traces · ❓ Frequently asked questions

Be well, my native village, built by our forefathers beneath Kojál, lovelier with every morning.

— Alois Zukal, Vesnička Senetářov (The Village of Senetářov)

Field names are the oldest map of a landscape. Before cadastral maps and GPS, this is how people made arrangements: “I’m off to mow the bařina”, “Meet me ho kamenýho kříže”. Most of these names are fading away along with the older generations. In Senetářov, where I grew up, someone fortunately got round to writing them down.

Why people here say “Ho”

If you don’t know the local dialect, you’ll stumble over the very first name: Ho tihelně, Ho kamenýho kříže, Ho Huberta. “Ho” here means “at” (standard Czech u). So Ho tihelně is “at the brickworks” and Ho kamenýho kříže is “at the stone cross”. The same goes for “ó” in place of “ou” (Za fabrikó, Na dlóhéch honech) or “tihla” for “cihla” (brick). It’s simply the everyday speech of the Drahany Uplands, and field names have preserved it better than anything else.

Names that tell of work

The soil on the uplands above the karst was poor, and farming alone couldn’t feed a family. The field names show how people earned a little extra:

• V dolinách (“in the hollows”) — fields above the Trávnický pond. People dug yellow clay here, made unfired bricks by hand, known as vepřovice, and built their own cottages from them. Later Bohumil Štelcl set up machine production of fired bricks on the site.
• Ho tihelně — at the brickworks run by the farmer Antonín Šebela, about 500 metres outside the village on the road towards Kotvrdovice. He fired the bricks in his own kiln and sold them all over the region. Tihla is the dialect word for a brick.
• Za fabrikó (“behind the factory”) — the village’s communal fields behind the former factory of Alfons Tománek, which made mother-of-pearl buttons. It employed most of the workers from Senetářov and the surrounding area and had the first diesel engine in the village. Today the local Museum of Traditional Housing and Mother-of-Pearl Craft keeps the memory of the trade alive.
• Ho mléna a sedmi větrů (“at the mill and the seven winds”) — a hill between Senetářov and Kotvrdovice. The landscape is open to the north here and the wind blows unobstructed all the way from Svitavy, which is why a windmill once stood on it.
• Kotliska — near Tři žleby (“Three Gullies”), where three streams meet. According to Zukal, coal was supposedly dug here for the ironworks in Jedovnice. The Hugo Ironworks in Jedovnice belonged to the Salm family’s ironworks; the whole history of iron in the region is told in our article Iron Karst.
• Ho třešinek (“at the little cherry trees”) — a rocky hillock behind house no. 27, where about five cherry trees grew. People tried to quarry stone here for building houses, but it wasn’t good quality.

Names with a legend attached

• Kojál — the hill above the village (about 600 m), where the boundaries of three districts met and where people from Senetářov, Kotvrdovice, Lipovec and Krásensko worked on its slopes. All those villages told stories of Kojálovský, who in his lifetime moved boundary stones to gain a bit of someone else’s field. As punishment, he must run about Kojál after death. Today Kojál is crowned by a 340-metre television transmitter mast, the tallest structure in Moravia, so you can spot it from miles around.
• Ho Antoníčka — a field and track at the turning off the Senetářov–Kotvrdovice road towards Lipovec. A wooden statue of St Anthony once stood here, and according to legend the place was haunted. Some people are said to have seen a fiery barrel there.
• Ho Huberta — a narrow forest track that drops steeply into the Rakovec valley. A picture of St Hubert hangs on a mighty beech tree. The story goes that the Princess of Rájec shot a stag here.
• Jelení hora (“Stag Hill”) — a hill with a deep cleft running down into the Rakovec valley. They say a stag once got its antlers wedged in the dense undergrowth here, couldn’t free itself and perished.
• Lipový kopec (“Lime Tree Hill”) — south of Tři žleby, where lime trees have grown on the summit since time immemorial. Zukal allows that there may once have been ancient pagan sacrificial sites here. It isn’t documented, but the view is worth the climb even without pagans.

Names with a view

• Na člopkách — a hill about 550 metres east of the village, towards Krásensko. From here you can see the whole of Senetářov, the Hostýn Hills and the church on Hostýn, and on a clear day even as far as Pálava.
• Lipový kopec — a view down into the Rakovec valley, over the Budkovan and Olšovec ponds and part of Jedovnice.
• Na hraničkách (“on the little boundaries”) — fields on the border with Krásensko. On the Senetářov side there used to be a broad balk overgrown with scrub and trees, forming an impenetrable belt. It is no longer there.

Woodland, meadows and German traces

• Zanýbl — Senetářov’s wood on the hill. The name comes from the German Sonnenhübel, meaning a sunny hill. German left its mark on the village’s own name too: in the 14th and 15th centuries it was written Senotarzow, and the German form Sonnendorf is also recorded.
• Na příční hálii — a long, straight and wide forest track on the boundary between Senetářov Wood and Ruprechtov Wood. Ho chálópke (“at the little cottage”): in the middle, on a raised spot, stands a small house where gamekeepers and the lords of Rájec rested after a hunt.
• Bílá skála (“White Rock”) — a stony hillock in Rakovec, in places made of limestone, close to the vanished village of Bystřec.
• Maliná — a hill in the Senetářov meadows (571 m). Raspberries grew thickly on its stony slope.
• Na bařině — a former waterlogged meadow, also known as Jelínečkova luka (“Jelínek’s Meadow”) after the Jelínek family, who owned the neighbouring house for generations.
• Na vobecnině — the common meadows stretching from Trávníky to Tři žleby. The village divided them into plots and sold them “for hay and aftermath”.

Frequently asked questions

What are pomístní jména (field and place names)? The popular names of fields, meadows, woods, tracks and hills used in everyday speech. They often don’t appear on official maps and were passed on by word of mouth.

What does “Ho” mean in names such as Ho tihelně? In the local dialect, “at” (standard Czech u). Ho tihelně means “at the brickworks”.

Where can I find the place names of Senetářov? In Alois Zukal’s book Historie Senetářova (1994, expanded edition 1999) and, in dialect form, in the Slovník pomístních jmen na Moravě a ve Slezsku (Dictionary of Place Names in Moravia and Silesia) from the Institute of the Czech Language of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which is freely available online.

Who is Kojálovský? A figure from legend told in the villages around Kojál. In his lifetime he moved boundary stones, and as punishment he must run about Kojál after death.

More stories from my home village: The Church of St Joseph in Senetářov. The series Hidden Stories of the Moravian Karst. What to see in the village and where to stay: Senetářov. Sources: Zukal, A.: Historie Senetářova (1994, expanded edition in cooperation with the Municipality of Senetářov 1999), chapter on local place names; Zukal, A.: Vesnička Senetářov (poem, opening verse quoted); Dictionary of Place Names in Moravia and Silesia, municipality of Senetářov, Institute of the Czech Language of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Kojál transmitter (Wikipedia); brochure of the Moravian Karst Voluntary Municipal Association (DSO Moravský kras), profile of the municipality of Senetářov.

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