Commemorative Plaque to Bedřich Všemír Berchtold in Tučapy

1935 

The memorial plaque of Count Bedřich Všemír Berchtold (1781-1876) can be found at the Municipal Office in Tučapy. It commemorates Berchtold as a prominent naturalist, physician, traveller and owner of the Tučapy estate. Berchtold worked in Tučapy as a philanthropic physician until 1815.

 

 

After finishing high school in the Old Town in Prague, Bedřich Všemír Berchtold studied medicine at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague and completed his studies there in 1804. He then travelled around Austria and Germany and also studied further in Vienna and Würzburg. Very important for Berchtold was his meeting with Count Kaspar Sternberg in Regensburg, who inspired his enthusiasm for botany. 

After returning from his travels, Berchtold decided to settle and work as a physician in Tučapy near Tábor, where his family owned a large farming estate. Berchtold practiced medicine in Tučapy until 1815, and this place also became the starting point for his numerous botanical expeditions in southern Bohemia. During this time, he also botanized around Prague or in the Bohemian Central Highlands. Berchtold discussed his floristic discoveries with Jan Svatopluk Presl and his brother Karel Bořivoj, who in 1819 published the first complete Czech Flora Flora čechica: indicatis medicinalibus, oeconomicis technologicisque plantis Berchtold supported the Presl brothers not only with his botanical findings, but also by financing together with Caspar Sternberg the publication of this work. Berchtold`s knowledge of botany - especially of economic plants - became fully apparent in 1820, when he co-authored Jan Svatopluk Presl`s important work On the Nature of Plants or Rostlinář, a book on the nature of plants and their use in economic, medical or artistic fields. He financially supported the first volume of the book and the first issues of the educational magazine Step, which was also edited by Jan Svatopluk Presl. Count Berchtold was also greatly involved in the founding of the Patriotic (today National) Museum.

After leaving Tučapy, Bedřich Všemír Berchtold lived in Prague and at the end of his life in a chateau in Buchlovice and at Buchlov Castle. Berchtold died there in 1876 at a venerable age and was buried in the cemetery in Buchlovice. 

 

The memorial plaque of Bedřich Všemír Berchtold, made by sculptor Jan Slabý from Tábor, was unveiled in Tučapy on the former school building on 28 September 1935 in the presence of the general public and relatives of Bedřich Všemír Berchtold. Its installation was initiated by the District Education Committee in Soběslav together with the municipal administrative committee and with the contribution of all Tučapy associations and the administration of the Tučapy estate. The speech was delivered by the eminent Czech botanist and mycologist Bohumil Němec. 

 

References

Hanuš, J.: Národní museum a naše obrození. 1. díl. Praha 1921, s. 261–262.

Hanuš, J.: Národní museum a naše obrození. 2. díl. Praha 1923.

Hoffmannová, E.: J. S. Presl, K. B. Presl. Praha 1973.

Koleška, Z.: Berchtold Bedřich Všemír 25.10.1781 – 3.4.1876. In: Biografický slovník českých zemí 4. Praha 2006, s. 437─438. 

 

Internetový zdroj:

Pamětní kniha obce Tučapské 1915–1970. In: Digitální archiv. Státní oblastní archiv v Třeboni, snímek č. 179, 1935. URL: https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/19/179/1177/1265/20/0 [2.9.2021].

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