On your left are the Masné krámy… the old meat stalls of Moravské Budějovice, and yes, this building is officially protected, because a town should remember where it fed itself. The first meat market stood right in the middle of the main square, with records going back to 1522. For more than 300 years, this was where you’d come for dinner ingredients and a little neighborhood gossip… until 1837, when locals pushed to have the old stalls torn down. Nothing says “civic improvement” like demolishing the butcher shops.
Two years later, in 1839, this newer classicist complex went up here with twelve shops. Today you can still make out the layout: a horseshoe shape opening to the street, a small courtyard behind a stone wall, and that arched gate… practical, sturdy, built for work. By the 1930s the butchers were gone, clubs moved in, the place wore down, then a 1972 rebuild turned it into a museum, with major repairs again in 2001 and 2002. Since 2003, the eight surviving stalls have been part of the Museum of Crafts.
When you’re set, Church of St. Giles (Moravské Budějovice) is a 0-minute walk heading west.
