Milkov Settlement

Milkov, in German Milikau, was located in the area of today's Tachova in the Pilsen Region, within the administrative territory of the municipality of Lestkov. The first written mention of the settlement dates back to 1115, when the so-called Kladrub False presents it as the property of the Kladrub monastery. This recognition thus puts Milkov in a number of important medieval sites of the region.

In the period between world wars Milkov was a living village. It had seven buildings and approximately fifty inhabitants, which placed it among small but vital communities. Odada didn't have her own church; along with Zadob and Lomy was so-called "fated" to the nearby Domaslavi, which meant that it was managed by a local clergy and still preserved in the Domaslav cemetery by the tombstones of the Milkovsk people. But the whole region, where the German-speaking population prevailed, could not be saved from the great historical changes that were to come.

The second half of the twentieth century has brought a major break. After World War II, the region faced the post-war expulsion of Czech Germans, which dramatically changed the composition of the local population. Although Milkov had twenty inhabitants in 1960, in the 1970s the village was already considered extinct. Around 1980 there was still a demolished building on the site, but over time the settlement is settled into the countryside.

Milkov is now known mainly by a group of trees that survived its demolition. Only small remnants of human activity can be found from the original village, which only a attentive pilgrim notices. From Lestkov, the valley of Hadovka or the valley of the Podhajská creek lead to this place of the field roads which still copy the paths of historic roads. At the beginning of the 21st century, the area was completely desolate, although after around 2020, the new owner built a tiny house, thus regaining some of his habitability.

In nature, Milkov was located on the upper plateau defined by the Hadovka and the Podhajská creek, approximately half the distance between the municipalities of Domaslav and Vrbice near Bezdružice. A castle of the same name was located just above the confluence of the two streams, which today resembles the dramatic nature of these landscapes.