Mikulov

History

The Battle of Znojmo marked the end of the military campaign of 1809. Austria, severely affected by the conditions of the Bratislava Peace Treaty of 1805, saw an opportunity for change of the unfavourable situation in the core of the French army fighting in Spain since 1808. With financial support of Great Britain Austria prepared a plan of an offensive based on the assumption of general German dissatisfaction with the Europe as organised by the French. The Austrian headquarters assumed that the small South German states will join them. Like in 1805, this assumption did not come true. Napoleon returned from Spain, formed a new army, based on the second-sequence troops and troops of the Rhine alliance, and pushed the Austrian troops from Bavaria, occupying Vienna again after four years as a result of a month-long campaign. The campaign was followed with a battle of Aspern-Essling, where Archduke Karl dealt the French Emperor the first blow in his brilliant career. The defeat was not decisive, though, and six weeks later both armies stood against each other again on the same battlefield in front of Vienna. In the battle of Wagram Napoleon won again and forced Austrians to retreat. His army followed them and near Znojmo, where Archduke Karl stopped, the last battle of the campaign took place to be interrupted with armistice. The peace treaty was signed in Schönbrunn on 14 October and represented another heavy political and economic blow for Austria. The country became a forced ally to France for four years, confirmed in 1810 by the marriage of Emperor Napoleon and Marie Louise, daughter to Emperor Franz.

The town of Mikulov is writ large in the history of both campaigns of Emperor Napoleon against Austria – in 1805 as well as in 1809, when parts of both armies passed through Mikulov. Four days after the Battle of Austerlitz, on 6 December 1805, peace negotiations were commenced in Mikulov, to be closed with execution of the peace treaty in Bratislava later. In 1809 several battles took place around Mikulov directly related to the last battle of the campaign – the battle near Znojmo. On 15 September 1809 Napoleon himself spent a night at the Dietrichstein chateau in Mikulov on his way to Brno and to the Austerlitz battlefield.

Following the battle of Wagram 4th Austrian troop of sub-marshal Rosenberg retreated towards Mikulov to attract attention of the French and thus cover the retreat of the core of the Austrian army towards Znojmo and further towards Jihlava. The retreat battles with the front line troops of the French army led by marshals Davout and Marmont were in the first place fought by the divisions led by the talented and later famous commander sub-marshal Radetzky. Marmont turned towards Znojmo as soon as on 10 July, but Davout reached as far as Mikulov and only there he turned towards Znojmo, where his troop was called but did not reach before the armistice was concluded.

The beautiful historic town of Mikulov and its surroundings offer ideal conditions for the memorial events animated by unions of military history. The first event was already held in 2006 to general satisfaction. Mikulov 2006 should become the first of a series of events culminating with a dignified reminder of 200 year anniversary of the events of 2009 across the region, including the Aspern-Essling-Wagram battlefields in Austria.

Even though no battle took place in Mikulov in 1809, the town and its surroundings were not spared of the presence of armies. The event should offer the visitors a view of ordinary life of a soldier in early 19th century. A military camp will be erected in the chateau park, around 200 soldiers including several horse-mounted soldiers in faithful replicas of period uniforms will practise military skills, and military troops will parade the streets of the town. The preparations for the 2009 celebrations will obviously also include rehearsals of battle scenes, representing the most attractive part of the programme. Saturday programmes will be the core of the programme for the general public.