OBÙRKA
Gamekeeping and hunting have an extensive and lengthy tradition on the Bechynì estate, going back to 1569, when Petr Vok of Ro¾mberk bought the estate. Among other alterations, he had a pheasantry established near the castle in 1570-1571. Soon afterwards he had the castle converted into a Renaissance residence with a park, part of which was the pheasantry. In 1596 Vok had to sell Bechynì to the ©ternberk family and in 1715 Jan Leopold Paar acquired the estate by marriage. The Paar family owned the castle and the Bechynì estate up until 1948, when they were confiscated from them by the state. Durign their ownership of the estate, the Paars continued to develop gamekeeping there. At the beginning of the 19th century the pheasantry was made into a small game preserve and it was stocked with fallow deer. This was the basis of the game preserve that was later known as Obùrka. The sources give 1817 as the date for its establishment. In 1957 moufflons were also introduced into the game preserve. Both types of animal are still kept there today.
Obùrka currently covers an area of 140 ha, of which 2 ha are meadows, pasturage, and a few lakes and fishponds. The remainder consists of forests, which contain important overmature stands of pine and oak. Among the facilities of Obùrka are a gamekeeper's lodge, a hunting hut, two haylofts, a trap and hidden high shooting stands. The game is of high quality, naturally shy, and is hunted individually on a still hunt or by stalking. Two-thirds of the borders of the preserve are natural, formed by the rivers Lu¾nice on one side and Smutná on the other. Part of the fencing round Obùrka was destroyed by flooding in 2002, and so a thorough repair of all the fences has been carried out. The preserve is not open to the public.
European fallow deer and moufflons are kept in Obùrka, with about 100 of each type being present. The quality is gradually improving. The largest trophies to have been hunted rated 192 points on the CIC scale for fallow deer and 222 points for moufflon.
Among the distinguished guests to have hunted in Obùrka is the current President of the USA, George H.W. Bush, who hunted moufflon when here as a guest of the Czech President's office in 1980.