Třeboňsko Protected Landscape Area

The Třeboňsko Protected Landscape Area lies in South Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, close to the Austrian border, spreading across the shallow Třeboň Basin. Covering roughly 700 km², it has been part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere network since 1977 — one of six Czech biosphere reserves.

What makes Třeboňsko distinctive?

The defining feature of the landscape is its dense network of fishponds. There are around 460 of them, linked by canals and drainage ditches, with water bodies covering about 13 percent of the entire protected area. Most of these ponds are not natural — they were dug by hand between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the region was systematically developed for freshwater fish farming, carp above all.

The best-known symbol of this heritage is Rožmberk Pond, the largest pond in the Czech Republic and one of the largest fishponds in the world, covering close to 489 hectares. It was built between 1584 and 1590 and remains the most recognizable feature of the Třeboň water system to this day.

A landscape shaped over centuries

Although Třeboňsko today reads as a harmonious mosaic of ponds, meadows, forests, and villages, eight centuries ago the same land was a wilderness of dense forest, marsh, and peat bog. Generations of local communities gradually reshaped the terrain, and that long process of sustained human management produced a cultural landscape rarely matched elsewhere in Central Europe — one where nature and human activity are deeply intertwined.

Natural richness

The combination of ponds, wetlands, and forest makes Třeboňsko one of the most important sites in Central Europe for breeding, migrating, and wintering wetland birds. The area holds a wide range of wetland habitats: pond littoral zones fringed with reed and sedge, marshes, alder and willow carrs, wet meadows, floodplain forests, and rarer mire types, including both raised bogs and acidic fens.

This habitat diversity supports a correspondingly rich variety of plant and animal species, which was one of the main reasons the area was placed under protection and later recognized within the international biosphere reserve network.

Frequently asked questions

What is Třeboňsko? It is a protected landscape area and UNESCO biosphere reserve in South Bohemia, Czech Republic, known for its dense network of historic fishponds and rich wetland habitats.

How many fishponds does the area contain? Around 460 fishponds, connected by a system of canals and drainage ditches.

Which is the largest pond here? Rožmberk Pond, covering nearly 489 hectares — the largest pond in the Czech Republic, built in the sixteenth century.

Since when has Třeboňsko been a UNESCO biosphere reserve? Since 1977, as one of six Czech sites in the Man and the Biosphere programme.

Why is the region important for birds? The mosaic of ponds, wetlands, and forest forms one of the key breeding, stopover, and wintering sites for wetland birds in Central Europe.