Add a photographRelated photographs (0)
There is no photo relating to this historical monument. We will be glad if you add one here.
Historical sources consider the Battle of Jankov as one of the most significant engagement of the Thirty Years’ War. Why? The reason is quite simple: the protracted conflict between the Swedish and Imperial armies became a lengthy gridlock due to approximately equal strengths of the two combatants. Even when the Swedes of the Imperial forces succeeded in winning a battle, it never meant annihilation of the enemy. This deathly equality in forces, dragging the war into decade, was disturbed by this battle near Jankov. The Imperial army basically ceased to exist, its supreme commander was captured. The Bavarian cavalry, earmarked for the spring campaign against France, was destroyed. The only viable option was to start seriously considering peace.
While the remnants of the Imperial forces went in the direction of Prague, where the body of Field Marshal Johann Götz was buried at the Na Slovanech monastery, the Swedish army marched in the direction of Jihlava in Moravia, and then on to Vienna. The Swedes were held from attacking the city only by reports of peace negotiations. Turning back, Torstensson failed in his attempt to capture Brno, and in October his troops left the lands of the Czech Crown.
The Jankov battlefield was littered with the bodies of 6,500 dead, who were buried in large mass graves on the battlefield. The largest of them are probably somewhere between Habrovka and the old road between Ratmerice and Jankov, perhaps near the big cross standing there. All the surrounding villages were burned down and destroyed, only Jankov escaped with minor damage. In other words, this part of the country thus suffered the same fate as most of Europe of that time. People left the scorched land and took decades to return.
Today, the Battle of Jankov has become a nearly forgotten event, largely overshadowed in the Czech history by another milestone of the Thirty Years’ War the Battle of the White Mountain. This publication aims to prevent the Battle of Jankov, which was probably more important for the history of Europe than of the Czech lands, from disappearing from memory.