Karkonosze lab technicians

The tradition of collecting medicinal herbs on the southern side of the Karkonosze Mountains dates back to the 16th century. After the Battle of Biała Góra, 1620 r., fought between Czech Protestants and the coalition of the Catholic Habsburgs and lost by the Czechs, Catholics have unleashed religious terror. Lots of Protestants, and among them herbalists, took refuge in the property of the Protestant Schaffgotsch family. They developed areas located in the valleys of mountain rivers, in the vicinity of today's Karpacz, Czech herbalists spread their skills of collecting herbs and preparing medical elixirs from them. Close 250 For years, Karpacz became a herbal medicine center and became famous for the guild of lab technicians, focusing 30 masters of this trade. Herbalists traveled the Karkonosze in search of valuable plants, and they chose the Spirit of the Mountains as their patron. Medicines made according to the recipes of laboratory workers were even sent to European courts. The popularity of herbalists, however, was not to the liking of doctors, who, due to administrative difficulties, limited the activity of lab technicians, until they finally led to the disappearance of the herbal art. He caused the ban on accepting new adepts to the guild, that herbalism disappeared with the dying masters. The last of them was August Zóbfel, who died in Karpacz in 1884. Today, you can see his house at ul. Constitution 3 The house 26, and at the Museum of Sport and Tourism, see the exhibition devoted to herbalism.