Osada Havranů

Village Hnanice

The eldest written mention about the village Hnanice is from 1201. It documents the vine growing and mentions about the Germans in Znojmo. In the Middle Ages were Hnanice one of the main social centres of the region, situated on major trade route leading from Prague through Jihlava to Vienna. Hnanice was the first village with the land border. On Hnanice markets came tradesmen from all over southern Moravia, and almost from the entire northern part of Lower Austria. History of village Hnanice was associated with the Premonstratensian church in Louka. St. Wolfgang's church and the contiguous well chapel became a major pilgrimage site. Meaning of village Hnanice fell after the abolition of Louka monastery in 1784, after the disappearance of pilgrimages and the transfer of the main routes on the way to Austria.

Hnanice is an ancient village located within the several borders - first is the state border with Austria and also at the interface of two geomorphological systems - the Bohemian Massif and Carpathian system, which passes around the line Retz - Hnanice - Znojmo - Moravský Krumlov.

Village Hnanice is situated in area where you find a lot of vineyards that stretch south of Znojmo from the entire valley bend of river Thaya to the former Austrian border.

The heart of the viniculture was actually this belt, that ran near to Austrian border across Hnanice to Jaroslavice.

In village Hnanice there were characteristic buildings the wine cellars. The cellars were built at the edges of existing or already extinct vineyards and were conected as a coherent whole on both sides of the road in the southwestern part of the village, now the Cellar Street.

The cellars were dug mostly below ground level and walled of stone or bricks, usually with a brick vault. The basic layout of the shape of the local wine cellars is a rectangle of different width and length. In Hnanice so as in the whole Znojmo, Mikulov and its surrounding, the wine cellars create a system of tunnels connected perpendicular to each other.

The Cellar Street of Hnanice is one of the most scenic in Znojmo Vineyard Subregion, the street starts on the right side of the road before leaving the village towards Austria.

Hnanice can be proud of four vineyard paths - Knížecí vrch, Fládnická, U kapličky and U Chlupa.

Geological characteristics of the village:

The village lies in a hollow along the river Daníž, on the line of contact of Bohemian Massif that represents biotite granite of massif Dyje and sand-clay marine sediments of Carpathian foredeep. At the time of the younger Tertiary Period the territory was likely a rugged sea coast with a bay into which the river flowed from the mainland. The land uplift and the sea recession evoke the erosion and a partial floating of sediments. In the cold Quaternary Period the wind storms contributed to creation of loess accumulation on the eastern slopes.