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Fruits of battle
by Vladimir Kuchar
Austerlitz was one of the Napoleon’s crowning victories, but the town of Slavkov and region have never been able to cash in on the lure of history. Now, plans are advancing for the biggest re-enactment of a battle on the European continent
On Dec. 2, 2005, Napoleon will once again command his army from Zuran, a manmade mound northwest of Brno.
Rewind 200 years from that date and the combined 85,000-strong Russian and Austrian armies, established their position in the area between Brno and Slavkov (Austerlitz according to its German name), south Moravia.

Against them stood the French army, which had nearly 10,000 fewer troops. In the ensuing battle, Napoleon gained a famous victory which helped him dominate Europe for another seven years and frustrated British attempts to undermine him.
About 12,000 Frenchmen died on the battlefield near Brno, while the allies lost 27,000 soldiers and most of their artillery. The bloodiest battle up until that time, later known as the Battle of Three Emperors, made a lasting impression on the memory of the local population and became a part of the folklore and subconscious of local inhabitants. Later, the battle became a cornerstone of the Napoleonic legend but, compared to that other great Napoleonic set piece, Waterloo outside Brussels, it has failed to pull in tourists or investment. Three million visitors a year visit the site of Napoleon’s last battle in Belgium while only 300,000 a year visit Austerlitz.
Part of the problem is that under communism the promotion of battles between aristocratic, established emperors and parvenu emperors was not a priority. Re-enactments of the battle only began after the revolution in 1989.
Now, the town of Slavkov, outer Brno councils and local businesses are looking to catch up on lost opportunities with the 200th anniversary of the battle. Plans are already advanced for the biggest re-enactment of a battle on the European continent. Prime ministers and presidents of France, Austria and Russia will be invited, and the cash tills should start ringing in the town and region. It’s not clear quite yet how many foreign heads of state and government will come along but organizers are confident about the money-generating opportunity.
“Our principal aim is to make Austerlitz at least comparable with Waterloo,” said Miroslav Jandora, the president of the Austerlitz 2005 Project, a non-profit organization, which is coordinating the bicentenary celebrations. “They [the Belgians] are much further ahead in their services. Around Waterloo you can find restaurants, accommodation and shops in every village in the area where you can buy models of [Napoleonic] soldiers. That’s what we are still missing,” he added.
The Austerlitz battlefield can catch up as a tourist attraction, he said. “We can offer the picturesque Moravian countryside as a backdrop, Slavkov’s castle, golf courses and wine tourism,” Jandora added.
Showcase
The showcase re-enactment of the battle in 2005 could involve at least 7,000 soldiers in authentic period uniform. That total has already enlisted to take part. Around 1,000 take part in the normal re-enactment now staged every year at the site of the battle.
Between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators are expected for the bicentennial, compared with the usual 10,000 or so. The budget for the 2005 re-enactment and associated events will be closer to Kc 10 million ($ 340,000) than the 3 million the annual re-enactment now costs to stage, Jandora said.
Around half of the normal annual re-enactment’s costs are in paying the military history clubs and their members that stage the battle. Another Kc 1 million is spent on fences, stands, ammunition and insurance. The remaining Kc 500,000 goes to advertising.
The event should become one of the biggest tourist lures in the south Moravian region. “Even now, numerous travel agencies, historic societies and various countries are inquiring about the event,” Jandora added. “We estimate that revenues from tourism trade in the region will be at least double compared with normal.”
Local businesses are already springing up in anticipation of the drawing power of the bicentennial, which some expect to have longevity. “Local entrepreneurs understand that they can earn money if they offer quality services to visitors,” he said. For example, two new restaurants, an entertainment center and a wine shop should be open soon in Slavkov.
The town is also planning to build a Kc 11 million congress center. The south Moravian regional authority has offered a Kc 1.48 million subsidy for the first phase of its construction.
Municipalities on or near the battlefield already enjoy some advantages, such as priority treatment of their planning applications by the region and faster repair of roads.
Sponsorship
Jandora has been involved with Austerlitz since the first post communist re-enactment in 1990, with a break between 1995 and 1997. Initially, Jandora’s friends asked him to film the event, but the project didn’t make money.
Jandora’s company, Davay, produces films and trades in video tapes and CDs. His public relations company, Davay Communications, has become one of the sponsors of the annual re-enactment of the battle along with Ceskomoravsky Cement, Moravske Naftove Doly and Komercni Banka. The French-owned bank decided last year to sponsor Austerlitz 2005.
“Sponsors mainly provide the funding. Municipalities contribute indirectly,” explained Jandora. For example, the town of Slavkov provided accommodation and subsidized meals for around 500 participants in the re-enactment of 2002.
Jandora’s brief disengagement from Austerlitz was caused by dissatisfaction at the narrow goals of the event. “The events were rather uncoordinated, full of narrow and local interests contributing very little to the region,” he explained. That problem was remedied when the Tvarozna municipality, the Napoleonic Union of the Czech Republic, whose members are enthusiasts for the era, Davay Communications and the town of Slavkov agreed on the way forward.
Austerlitz 2005 has much broader goals and includes the same organization involved in the annual event as well as the 24 councils that lie within or border the site of the protected battlefield and scene of initial skirmishes between the armies.
As well as attracting tourists, the project aims to make the battle, Slavkov and the region a focus for historians of the era. Brno is well-placed to become a center for studies of the Napoleonic era, according to the project’s Web site. Seminars held this year at Vranov, near Brno, included “Napoleon and the idea of Europe” and “Napoleon and the issue of religion.” Next year, a series of seminars will examine the influence of the French enlightenment on Moravia and Bohemia. Two international symposia in 2005 will focus on military issues of Austerlitz and the social-historical aspects of Napoleonic Europe.
A mound and a radio radar
A fresh battle has opened up on the site of the Napoleonic battlefield. This time round the focus of fighting is the Peace Burial Mound, the man-made hill constructed between the wars near the village of Prace to commemorate the dead. The latter day combatants are the Czech army and local residents, councils and Napoleonic enthusiasts.
Czech army plans to construct a radio radar near the burial mound have provoked the clash. The radio, largely financed by NATO funds, should be put into operation in 2006, a year after the bicentennial.
Conservationists from Brno and Slavkov argue that the whole character of the battlefield will be spoiled by the intrusive radar. So far their claims have been rejected by the south Moravia regional authority, the planning authority.
Opponents of the construction have organized a Slavkov Appeal on the Internet, in which they describe the construction of the radar as an act of a bureaucratic steamroller. About 2,000 people have signed the appeal so far. “To build a radar behind the mound is the same as building a supermarket on a cemetery,” wrote one of the signatories of the appeal.
Jandora says the radar project is senseless.