K. V. Rais

The Karel Václav Rais memorial plaque stands in Jičín, a town in the north-east of the Czech Republic where the writer spent the formative years of his education and took his first steps toward a teaching career. It is one of several plaques across the country honoring an author whose name remains tied to Czech "village prose" and to the portrait of rural life in the Krkonoše foothills at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Who was Karel Václav Rais?

Karel Václav Rais was born on 4 January 1859 in Lázně Bělohrad, the son of a weaver and a seamstress, and died on 8 July 1926. He was a Czech writer, poet and educator associated with literary realism. His greatest fame came from the novel "Zapadlí vlastenci" ("Forgotten Patriots"), which portrays teachers and priests in the foothill villages of Podkrkonoší as they strive to preserve the Czech language and national identity under pressure from Germanization. Rais drew on his own life: before becoming a full-time writer, he spent many years working as a teacher in village schools.

What connects the writer to Jičín?

It was in Jičín that the young Rais received the education that shaped his professional path. He attended the town's lower secondary school and then, from 1873 to 1877, its teacher training institute, which he completed with excellent results. Those four years in Jičín gave him the qualification that let him take up his first teaching post in Trhová Kamenice as early as 1877. He went on to teach in Hlinsko, where he was appointed in 1882 and where he met his future wife, Marie Hrozná, a former colleague from Kamenice. From 1899 he headed the municipal school in Vinohrady, Prague, balancing his teaching duties with an increasingly active literary career.

Why does Jičín commemorate him?

The years spent at the Jičín teacher training institute are considered a formative chapter of Rais's biography — it was here, among peers preparing for careers as rural schoolteachers, that the themes he later returned to in his writing began to take shape. The town has honored him with several memorial plaques placed at different points, forming part of a wider network of Rais-related memorial sites in the region that also includes his native Bělohrad, Hlinsko and Kameničky, where he likewise worked.

What should visitors know before stopping by?

The plaque in Jičín is a modest, low-key stop worth combining with a walk through the town's historic center, known for its Renaissance square and Valdštejn (Wallenstein) castle. For anyone interested in Czech literature, it offers a chance to see the place where the professional path of the author of "Zapadlí vlastenci" began — a writer whose work still shapes the picture of Czech village life and rural schooling at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Karel Václav Rais? A Czech writer and teacher (1859-1926), author of the novel "Zapadlí vlastenci" and a leading figure of Czech village prose depicting life in the Podkrkonoší region.

What was his connection to Jičín? From 1873 to 1877 he studied at the town's teacher training institute, gaining the qualification he needed to begin his teaching career.

Where did he work after finishing his studies in Jičín? First in Trhová Kamenice (from 1877), then in Hlinsko (from 1882), and from 1899 he headed the municipal school in Vinohrady, Prague.

Is there only one plaque dedicated to Rais in Jičín? No — the town holds several memorial sites tied to the writer, alongside similar plaques and monuments in Bělohrad, Hlinsko and Kameničky.