ALŠOVICE
The village of Alšovice always belonged to Malá Skála demesne (the former name of the demesne being Skála nad Jizerou or Skála Vartemberská). The first record of Alšovice was found in the provincial documents of the Kingdom of Bohemia, in the form of a sale contract written in Czech and dated 25th March 1538, according to which the supreme Prague burgrave Jan z Vartemberka bought the Malá Skála demesne from Karel z Waldšteina. The demesne was large with its wide surroundings and the village of Hamrštice, and the settlements along the both sides of the path. The name of the village has changed many times – Halschowitz, Alssowice, Halschitz. Until 1919, the official name was Halšovice, which was later changed to Alšovice. Dupanda is one of the parts of the village.
In 1543, the patrimony was taken by Jan´s son Adam z Wantemberka, following which, progress in employment of the locals began. Glass workers from the areas of Bor and Česká Lípa came here. The great supply of timber from the local forests of the period was used for the newly-established glassworks. The well-kept (in those days) provincial path of Hamrštice used to help the exporting of wood and its utilisation. Charcoal was transported to the glassworks and to the tilt-hammers in Brod alongside it. The road used to be used for the annual processions from Bozkov to Hejnice with the stop in the church in Krásná.
The first document about the residents of Alšovice is from the times when field farming used to be the main livelihood (record from a document called Maloskalský urbář, 1608). In those days, Alšovice was a poor mountain village. There were neither a church, nor a school, nor a Meierhof.
Until the latter half of the 19th century, linen or woollen thread was spun in every household. The elderly used to make brooms and sell them in neighbouring towns, where they would go with pack baskets filled with collected forest fruits. When slate began to be mined in the surroundings, it presented a job opportunity for the locals. A new Hendrich´s glass button factory was built in the critical year 1890. About five years before, beads used to be pressed on tables. In 1930, there were 45 glass button factories in Alšovice and 115 button pressers, who used 15 wagons of coal and 60 tons of glass for their work.
In the era of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Alšovice button pressers established Maják cooperative, and built a new glass bead factory on the crossroad in Pěnčín in 1936. After nationalisation, the cooperative became a part of the national company Železnobrodské sklo. Many skilful glass workers making beautiful and world-famous glass figures have come, and continue to come, from Alšovice.
In 1899, the first school was built in Alšovice. It was a single-class school, which belonged to the school in Bzí. Today, children from Alšovice attend the elementary school in Pěnčín, and after an extensive renovation, the former school became a house with a community care service. The local Sokol organisation (the Czech gymnastic club) is highly active here..
„Hamrštice“ in a photograph by Jasna Smolková
War memorial in Alšovice