The history of the Inn „Staré časy“ (The Old Times)

The inn "The Old Times" (Staré Časy) is located in building No. 6 in Ostrov u Macochy. In the local chronicle is written: "It is interesting that there is an old purchase contract from the half of the 18th century telling about renting the inn No. 6 in Ostrov in possession to the family Vaněk in 1749 by the Countess Karolina of Roggendorf, as there have been already six generations of the family Vaněk renting it before". It means this first written mention about the inn is 265 years old, but apparently there was an inn long time before already.

The last of the family Vaňěk was Vaňková Marie (1890-1966), who got married with Martin Zouhar. Due to his premature demise (in marriage he lived just 1.5 years) there was no child born out of this marriage. Marie Zouharová became a respectable widow. At the same time she was a strongly religious person with solid moral principles, abounding with huge love for people. At her young age and being widow she nevertheless took over management of the family property, which was not only the restaurant (often entrusted for rent to landlords), but a smithy and a whole complex of farm buildings where they bred animals and stored crops from their own meadows and fields. After World War I in spring 1920 Marie Zouharová decided for a radical reconstruction of the entire building and later in 1936 she put an extension to the east side of the restaurant. The Inn "U ZOUHARŮ" (At the Zouhars') was not just a place renowned for its cuisine, it also became a spiritual, political and cultural center of the village. It served as a political meeting place and a community center – it became a local cinema where movies were projected, a theatre, a spot for organizing huge balls and due to its bowling alley also a popular place of amusement for sporty men. In short, exactly the way it used to be in "Old Times".

Even though you cannot move backwards the wheels of time and today's life-speed drives us all very quickly forwards, we believe, that in the Inn "Staré časy" (The Old Times) you will spend pleasant moments and thanks to your experience you will awaken the atmosphere of a living place again, a place, where you want to return.