Exciting New Season Kicks Off at the Schwarzenberg Canal

This year’s Opening Ceremony of the Sailing Season is scheduled for Saturday, May 10, 2025, at Jeleních Vrchy, located near Nová Pec. This event is especially significant as it commemorates 232 years since the navigation canal was established in Jelení Vrchy. Also, it has been 192 years since the Jelení Slip was completed, which helped alter the course of the Jelení Brook. It’s worth noting the recent achievement in 2022, when the Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO decided during its meeting in Rabat, Morocco, to add timber sailing (rafting) to the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

On Saturday at Jelení Vrchy, attendees can enjoy a festive atmosphere filled with music, dancing, and the unique experience of wood floating. You can purchase cold and hot drinks, tasty food, various meat dishes, and even homemade sweets. The exciting wood sailing demonstration on the Schwarzenberg Navigation Canal will begin at 2:30 p.m. from House No. 13 at the Expo Canal Exposition. At 3:00 p.m., the dance band Libín-S Prachatice and several folklore groups, including Libíňáček, Pětikvítek, and Wiadawö, will provide music for your enjoyment. You can meet the musicians right in front of the barn where the exposition is set up.

Be sure to bring your children! They have the chance to become sailing apprentices. They’ll learn how to throw wood into the water for floating and get to try using a grappling hook to help haul firewood. Children who participate in the wood floating event will be officially recognized by the Cruise Director as Sailing Apprentices and will receive not just a diploma but also a textbook and a badge celebrating their accomplishment!

Construction of the Schwarzenberg Canal and Eight Million Meters of Timber

The building of the Schwarzenberg Navigation Canal, previously known as the Vienna or Krumlov-Vienna Canal (used for floating timber from the forests of the Schwarzenberg Český Krumlov estate to the imperial capital Vienna), began on May 4, 1789. Remarkably, by the end of that same year, the canal had already stretched an impressive 21 km, reaching the Rasovka stream just above today’s Nová Pec. By 1791, the canal was finished up to Jezerní Brook, which flows from Lake Plešný, a water source utilized by the canal’s creator, Joseph Rosenauer, as a navigation reservoir. In 1793, the canal extended all the way to Deer Creek, which is now known as the Jelení Vrchy settlement, often referred to by locals as Hiršperky. After this point, Rosenauer halted further construction as the canal already provided access to an adequate area of forest. It wasn’t until nearly three decades later that efforts resumed towards the Bavarian border.

During its peak rafting period, which lasted about a century, close to eight million meters of firewood were transported via the canal. The last timber floating to Vienna occurred in 1892, with the final timber rafting across the watershed happening in 1916.

Event Overview

Celebrate the start of the new sailing season on the historic Schwarzenberg Canal with a lively festival of music, dance, and demonstrations that honor the waterway’s rich timber-transport heritage.

Location

Jelení Hills, Šumava (near Nová Pec)

Date & Time

Saturday, May 10, 2025 (daytime festivities)

Festival Highlights

• Wood sailing demonstration along the canal’s towpath

• Live music and traditional dance performances

• Refreshment stalls offering regional treats

Special Children’s Program

Young festival-goers who join in the activities will be recognized as “swimming apprentices,” each receiving a certificate, commemorative book, and badge.

Historical Context

Constructed in the late 18th century to float timber from Šumava’s forests down to Vienna, the Schwarzenberg Canal spanned into Bavaria and remained a vital transport route for over a century. Today, an exhibition in an old canal forge showcases its engineering, historical functions, and the centuries-old craft of rafting—which in 2022 was inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Visitor Information

The opening celebration is free to attend. Wander the canal banks, explore the forge exhibition, and immerse yourself in the traditions that shaped the Czech-Austrian-Bavarian borderlands.