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CHAPTER 5<br />
Case Study 2<br />
The Czech/Austrian border<br />
The area with the remaining fortifications felt very lonely – we were the<br />
only visitors apart from a Czech police vehicle which drove up the road<br />
and looked surprised to see us. Although it was bleak, it was also very<br />
compelling – to see the effect on a community of trying to shut the rest<br />
of the world out.<br />
(Emma, Australia)<br />
My first encounter with the Podyji National Park, in the southwestern part<br />
of the Czech Republic, was through the eyes of someone else. I had been<br />
searching the internet and stumbled upon some pictures from the village of<br />
Čižov that caught my attention. A line of single barbed wire fencing<br />
stretched along the top of a hill and a watchtower stood tall next to it. I<br />
contacted Emma who had taken the photos and she explained how this<br />
place and its history had fascinated her since her first visit and how she has<br />
kept coming back ever since. During the Cold War the area of the park was<br />
part of the forbidden zone that stretched along the border between what<br />
was then Czechoslovakia and Austria. I first visited the area on a cold<br />
December day in 2009. Tourist season was over but occasionally I bumped<br />
into a cyclist or a couple of ramblers greeting me with a polite ‘Dobrý den’.<br />
During season the park is a popular recreational area and with many well<br />
marked paths for cycling, walking and horse riding the park draws a lot of<br />
visitors. Maps and information points inform the visitors about the vast<br />
variety of flora and fauna thriving in the park and how best to experience<br />
them. The fact that the area had very limited access during the Cold War<br />
made it into a safe zone for many animals as well as for vegetation. This has<br />
created a unique flora and fauna that the park is aiming to maintain. Few<br />
people that come to the Podyji National Park reflect on the area’s turbulent<br />
20 th century history. Apart from the fence and watchtower that are left in<br />
the village of Čižov there is little indication at a first glance that this area<br />
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