The emerging ecovillage Spoluzemě Vrábsko is located between Písek and Příbram in southern Bohemia next to ponds with herons and swans, in the Schwarzenberg countryside full of thick oaks along roads, fields and spruce monocultures.
There are about 12-15 people and a few children living here. The core is 12 members – from the founding circle of the Community in March 2021. Most of our members have their own projects, create something or start a business.
In the future, we would like to have more members, to be such a small eco-village. In the first phase, we are now creating the foundation – housing, space, garden and tuning the internal system. To a certain extent, we already have our stability and in the near future we would like to gradually welcome other members and families with children who will have enough appetite and courage to step into the unknown and develop the project. There are no accommodation capacities in the houses yet – we have to gradually create everything together. But there would be a place for an enclave of small houses. The total potential includes a building plot as well as a residential attic, which requires investment and reconstruction.
Our story
The sparks of the vision of establishing and building an eco-village, which we are now realizing in Vrábsko, rose around 2016. The fateful spark ignited at the Soběsta(te)čnosti festival in Sklenářka in the summer of 2019. During a circle around the topic of communities and alternative living, the owner of the land came to the conclusion that she had a beautiful place and invited people to live together. At that time, it was like honey for bees, because with the changing world in many of us, this exact desire – to live somewhere together and meaningfully – was long overdue and some were just waiting for such an opportunity. Most of us have lived somewhere in a community or have dealt with communities. Side by side also stood the curious, land-seeking Zeměsouznění – the first ecovillage in Bohemia, which eventually found refuge later in Pěčkovice in the west of Bohemia.
In the fall of 2019, with around twenty people, we started meeting in regular circles and co-creating an idea, guidelines, intention, vision and everything that is needed for living together, including harmonizing us as people. The circles were always high intensity. But some wanted to live it all on their own, so the first “wild boars” moved to a house that barely had floors and water didn’t flow in the winter.
Since then we have stabilized. Some people left, from the remaining group we founded the Vrábsko Community with twelve founding members in March 2021, organized the first festival, a few sweat lodges, work weekends, and welcomed two long-term volunteers here in the summer of 2022 through the European Program. We are currently working on a permaculture plan to plant an edible forest, and in time there will also be a pond. We are expanding the garden, the workshop and the number of inhabitants. In the near future, we want to create facilities for small houses for potential members and for some of us.
In the spring of 2020, the covid era came and the quarantine helped another wave of us move here in droves. We slowly settled in, planted the first beds and created our new homes. The situation has also changed for the crew from Vila Flora – a project in Prague, which so far only lead regular circles. Their contract for the villa was terminated, and in the middle of the holidays they landed here with its contents, thanks to which a common background was created on the farm and in the hall.
The Space
The place that is currently and in the future available for our operation consists of several adjoining plots and one separate one. Currently, the main areas for housing and facilities for members and their activities are two so-called ‘Enclaves’. Between them lies a large meadow with vegetable and other beds and an area with yurts. The total area of the land is around 9 ha.
We use two buildings – a farm and a house. On the farm, we have a few rooms, mobile homes and common facilities (halls). Also a large garden, where we grow a significant part of our diet. Between the two enclaves is a large meadow and the related area of the Jurtcamp, rented to the public during the summer season for events, camps and workshops. The house has a quieter environment – three small rooms and maringotka. (photo)
In the interior, in addition to seating by the fireplace, there is a production facility for raw goodies and ferments from the Kombuchaman, Hynkovy Fermenty and FruityDay projects. Then we have a textile workshop with looms and sewing machines. Last but not least, there is a substantial woodworking and DIY workshop, in the larger one you will find the Tiny House project Obydlo . (add photo – flower beds, hut, shop, factory, seating)
You can find sweat lodges in our common area – we hold regular events on the equinoxes and solstices. The utility garden has several long beds where we grow basic vegetables for our own consumption. Among the animals, you can find chickens, Indian runners and cats. We don’t want dogs that much, and we don’t have a vision of more significant animal endeavor.