Eating Luxembourg: Moravia (Bzenec part 1)

After a few days in Zlin, we headed down to Bzenec (pronounced bzenets) to visit with some other Otepkas and have a celebration in the family wine celler. Around noon on Friday, Jirka, Mirka, Petr, Mike and myself made the hour-long drive from Zlin to Bzenec. Upon arriving in Bzenec we enjoyed some coffee, snacks and of course slivovitz at Danes and Dana's home and we were joined by Tomas (Dana's brother) who lives across the street with his wife and twin two year old kids.

The Otepka family in Bzenec, just like our family in Zlin welcomed us with open arms and we got off to a great start. And it didn't hurt that Danes had Bruce Springsteen playing when we walked in. After about an hour or so, all of us went for a walk through town and took in some Otepka family history.

First, Bzenec is where the American Otepkas trace our most recent Czech history back to. In Bzenec, our great-great grandfather Tomas Otepka had two sons, our great grandfather Ferdinand and his brother Rudy. The two brothers eventually married two sisters, Johana and Marie.

Sometime around 1915 Ferdinand, who was a blacksmith specializing in forging wheels for carts, moved with his wife Johana to the U.S.A. and settled in Chicago. They had two sons, Otto (link #2) and our grandfather, Rudy. By the way, check out the links on Otto -- very cool gov't conspiracy story.

So who are these people we stayed with in the CZ? I'm glad you asked... Ferdinand's brother, Rudy who remained in Bzenec with his wife Marie had three sons, Stanislav, Vladimir and Jiri. These three brothers were my grandfather's cousins. Vladimir was the father of the modern Zlin crew, Jirka and Petr, and Jiri was the father of the modern Bzenec Otepkas, Tomas and Dana. There you have it.

So we wandered through town and took a few pics. Here are a few...

Our great grandfather Ferdinand lived in the house that until a
a few years ago was behind this fence.

Mike in front of the building where Ferdinand Otepka used to
work as a blacksmith.

Close-up of the address of blacksmith shop.

After we saw where Ferdinand used to live and work, our relatives took us around the rest of the town and showed us some really cool stuff. First, we looked directly across town at the remains of the baroque chapel St. Florian that still gazes down on Bzenec. Originally built as a castle in the 12th century, by the 13th century it was the royal residence and later the margrave's government of South Moravia. In 1423 it was destroyed by the Hussites and left to waste until 1703 when the chapel was built. Unfortunately, WWII came along and blew it to most of it to shite.