The first mention of our cottage could be taken from the request of Josef Marvan, who in “Aprilis 1720” humbly asks the nobility for the possibility to “build a cottage on a stone fallow by the upper hill of Bystre, where I always ask to graze sheep”. As a justification, he writes that “there is no room for a family in my shepherd’s hut anymore, because I have 5 children and my wife is pregnant again.”
It should be noted that according to the records in the Urbarium for the mayor’s office of Sněžné, where Bystré belonged at that time, the evidence of the construction of the cottage occurs only 3 years later, i.e. in 1723. At that time, the cottage had “2 sections, a cellar, a place for a cow at the back” and was roofed with “thatched plates, made entirely of fresh straw”.
Then there are no changes in the size of the cottage for a long time, only from the land registers, this time for the magistrate’s office of Nové Město, it is possible to find various additional purchases of land, at most every 50 meters “so that I can turn the cow around for myself while ploughing”. In 1754 we can find out that the owner of the cottage changed, when one of Josef Marvan’s daughters, Kateřina, surprisingly became the owner of the cottage by will. At that time, this is very exceptional, because at that time the youngest sons became the owners of the cottages, who usually had to pay off their brothers (only) shares, the daughters were not entitled to this payment. Whether Josef Marvan had only daughters or whether the sons died cannot be proven, because due to the great fire of Dobruška, where the church registers were stored at that time and where the registry for the village of Bystré burned down, unfortunately it was not possible to find it, because the first register that is available begins in 1784…
However, we can already find in it that in 1790 a son Jan was born in cottage No. 6 to parents Jan Kobal and Rozina Snížková. It can be assumed that they are relatives from the side of the first owner, Jan Marvan, because one of the godfathers is Jan Marvan, a farmer from Dobřany. Unfortunately, the urbarium for this period has not been preserved…
In the later chronicle it was found that in 1826 Johann Dyntar became one of the rightful owners and the cottage already had “three sections, a churn, a cellar, a hauzflur and a maststal”, it was built “aus Steine und Holz” and it had a “Stopeldach” (thatched roof).
And then it is possible to find out from the registration sheets in the Land Register that in 1840 Jan Dyntar became the sole rightful owner of the cottage after he managed to pay out all the shares. One of his daughters married Josef Vaněk as her first husband and after his death František Dyntar. Both gradually become co-owners of the cottage. In 1880, Anna, married Marková, bought the cottage from her father together with her husband, only to be inherited by their daughter after their death. She then sold the cottage by proxy to her relatives the Dyntar family, who sold it in 1890 to Jan Fišer, a relative of the Dyntar and Marek family.
In 1907, Josef Fišer, Jan Fišer’s son and his wife Josefa, born Andršová, bought the cottage from him. A total of 5 children were born in the cottage during their lifetime, one of them was our grandmother Marie and then great-aunt Josefa, married Michlová. She became the sole rightful owner in 1957 by her father’s will and lived here until her death at the blessed age of 98 in 2014. After her, the cottage was again inherited by our father Josef and our uncle Jiří Dusílek. And when our dad died in 2021, we also became co-owners.
The cottage as such underwent various reconstructions and extensions during the family’s ownership, with one of the largest taking place in the 1970s, when the original wooden entrance to the house was replaced by a brick extension, modifications to the ceilings and floors were made, and the original wooden structure was bricked up and replaced only by paneling.
After the death of our great-aunt, we decided to gradually repair the cottage. We did not want and do not want to modernize at any cost, there were only modifications and repairs that were necessary (e.g. a bathroom was built from part of the original kitchen, the wiring was replaced, heating was added, etc.). Some of it we did ourselves (mostly), some with the help of craftsmen, so at our cottage you can meet, for example, uneven walls, low ceilings, painted windows, but with full equipment, even if the original furniture and dishes.
We like it here and we can say that we also have an emotional relationship with the cottage, because we used to come here to feed the rabbits to our great-aunt, take our first steps on skis on the hill and later we came here just for a “chat”. And we will be happy if you like it with us too.
On behalf of all the co-owners – aunt Irena, brother Michal, written and cordially invited to visit Petra Polesná, born Dusílková.