Pearl Mussels

The river pearl mussel needs extremely pure water to live. Pearl mussels had lived in the Otava River since time immemorial. In 1594, Děpold Švihovský established in writing that they had to be protected against poachers. At the turn of the 18th and 19th century, the then owners of the demesne – the Rummerskirchs – founded artificial pearl mussel farming in the château millrace; the fry was imported from Holland.

When pearling, the shells were opened with a special key and the pearl was removed with a silver spoon, so that the gloss would not be damaged by the touch of the hand. With industrial development in the 20th century, the quality of water in the river began to worsen rapidly. There were fewer and fewer pearl mussels in the river, so the last pearling took place in 1944. After World War II, pearl mussels in the Otava River died completely out due to the heavy pollution of the water.