by
Robert J. Paulson

Kapsch

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The village of Kapsch belonged to the dominion of Kladrau.  In a document from 1115 Kapsch is mentioned in conjunction with the lands of one of the Lutorat brothers, one of the brothers had a field in Kapsch, the other in Unola.  Another mention of the village comes in 1468.  In that year, Kapsch found itself in dire financial straits and needed to be rescued by Otto von Stropschitz.  In 1495, Abbot Johann II received permission to settle his laborers in the grounds of Kapsch.  Von Salsel once belonged, along with the village of Gibian, to the wider lands of the family Zachawetz.  In 1640, the brothers Zachawetz divided the lands amongst themselves and the Benedictine Cloister in Kladrau to pay dues.  In 1694, after the death of Wensels von Zachawetz, the half of the village belonging to him was sold to the Rican family who later sold it to the Cloister in 1706.  The church in Kapsch was built in 1352 as the parish church.  The original building was constructed under the Abbott Amandus Streer.  The interior and decoration were coordinated by Wenzel Ritter and made of glass.  The parish house was constructed in 1720 by Abbott Maurus II Fintzgut, and eventually became the abbotts’ summer residence.  The Meierhof in Salesl transferred to the Windiggraetz family after the dissolution of the Kladrau Cloister.  This hof was known for the quality of fruit it produced and stemmed from the cloister.  The majority of the village was made of up houses occupied by those who worked on the hof.  After the first world war, the youth of the village began to learn trades, which replaced farming as the primary occupation of most of the village.  The new Czech government sought to implement a program designed to make Czech the language of the village.  This program was met with resistance, and Salesl was home to a German speaking organization until 1926.  That was the year that the Meierhof was sold and became the mittle point of a southerly pasture on a larger farm.