Mutěnice - The heart of wine region of Slovácko

The founding charter for this settlement has not yet been located and thus the first reference to the settlement appears in Moravian land documents from the year 1367. Grape growing was established and developed in Mutěnice thanks to the orders of Knights Templar and the Knights of Malta, who owned the village at the very start of its existence. The further development of local viticulture was greatly improved by the settlement of Moravian Anabaptists called ‘Habáni’ in the second half of the 16^th century. By contrast, the consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the country as a whole and naturally also on viticulture in Moravia. The records of land registry visits from 1671 inform us that the wine settlement of Mutěnice had 98 inhabited estates before the war. Twenty years after the war, there were only 36 inhabited estates and the locals abandoned viticulture altogether. The industry of the local population and ideal conditions for growing grapes meant that vineyards were not left unattended for long. As early as 1844, the wine mountains of Vyšicko, Dubňanská Hora, Hraničky, Zárybnické and others were planted with almost 200 hectares of grapevine. The privileged position of viticulture in the settlement was confirmed by the establishment of the State and Regional Viticulture School at the beginning of the 20th century, and the opening of a state and regional central model cellar. At present, Mutěnice with its 340 hectares of registered vine tracks ranks first among wine settlements in the region of Slovácko and the geographic location of the village with large areas of vine-covered hillsides renders it the heart of the territory, a transition point between southern and northern vine growing regions in Moravia.    

Painted ‘žudras’ (small arched decorated projection over an entrance into a cellar) of Ján Lacko

Since the beginning of the 18th century a complex of cellars and ‘búdas’ have been growing under the Zárybnické vineyards. Solitary cellars were dug in several rows, single-storey ‘búdas’ were constructed of earth rammed into wooden boarding (“nabíjanica”) and at the beginning of the 20th century they were still covered by a thatched hip roof protruding over the front and supported by wooden columns. In this way, a front porch was created where one could sit and chat. The front wall was divided by a massive wooden two-leaved door and a single window. In front of the door, there was a small slat gate guarding the entrance when the house was aired. The whitewashed front of the pressing house was circumscribed by a green stripe at the bottom. This favourite colour in the settlement was often used to paint the gable, door and windows. The ‘búda’ had a single room inside, an earthen floor and a ceiling constructed of wooden beams supported by a grid and column. At the end of the 19th century, the colony of cellar ‘búdas’ began to merge with houses at the lower end of the village and many búdas were converted into houses in the end. Other renovations and extensions of cellars took place in the 1930s. Thatched roofs were replaced by burnt roof tiles, massive screw presses were gradually removed from pressing houses and the búda was divided into work and relaxation sections. The pressing houses were fitted with a ‘žudro’ (see the dictionary at the end) and window jambs. These constructional elements of búda n. 300 were decorated by an important regional artist, Jano Köhler. Common decorative elements in the complex are vegetable and figurative motifs placed on žudras and the fronts of the houses.  These were often scratched out on the red and brown undercoat by local artist Ján Lacko. About 500 cellars currently make up a picturesque wine village with a pub and several boarding houses.  And guests are also welcomed in style, especially those travelling along the Mutěnice wine trail from the settlement of Čejč – the cellar colony is preceded by the impressive scenery of vineyards located on the southern hillsides of the Zárybnická  wine mountain (Zárybnická Vinná Hora).