I visited this WHS in Summer 2019 and spent 2 nights here using it as a convenient base after visiting the inscribed castles and gardens of Czechia and before heading towards Trebic, the Tugendhat Villa and the Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk.

It turned out to be a great choice for dining options and a lively atmosphere all day long. We stayed at one of the pensions with pretty facades all around the main square and had a parking permit to park just in front of the pension (in fact cars are parked around half of the square pensions. Although quite touristy, I fell in love with Telc. After Prague and Cesky Krumlov (both VERY crowded almost all day), it was great to have the whole town for ourselves early in the morning and late in the afternoon/evening. The town square reminded me of Bardejov, Slovakia, although Telc is much prettier. I was surprised that the whole town of Telc looks like an island when viewed from above with a drone.

Telc is one of the oldest medieval towns in Bohemia. The castle and fortress of Telc are surrounded by lakes in the beautiful area of Bohemian-Moravian highlands, right at the middle of an ancient provincial route which lead from Vienna to Prague. The main square was built during the second half of the 14th century to serve as a large market place. The most important period for the development of Telc was around 1553 under the administration of Zacharias of Hradec who, inspired by Italian Renaissance, started the reconstruction of the Gothic fortress. The Italian masters, stucco artists and masons were invited to shape the features of the houses and the square itself.

The houses have preserved their Gothic ground plans. To present days, the stone columns and wooden panelling are late Gothic while the facades of the houses/pensions numbered 39 to 70 are decorated in the Baroque and Renaissance styles. On each side of the town square, there is a tall tower, one of the Church of St Jacob and one of the Church of the Holy Spirit. I gladly bought the small hand painted ceramic models of the Telc facades which were a great souvenir to remind me of the great time spent in one of Czechia's best WHS. The UNESCO WHS inscription plaque can be found on the town hall wall just under the porticoes.