A Trip into the Past at Austerlitz

I would like to tell you about a hero of mine.

Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, son of a famous general who served Catherine the Great, was a wealthy Russian aristocrat born around 1780. Clever, talented, and desperate to impress his distant and demanding father, he found himself ill at ease in Russian high society. He watched and admired the rise of Napoleon from afar, and dreamt of having his own moment of glory that would propel him to greatness. When the Russian army entered an alliance with the Austrians and British to stop Napoleon's march across Europe (known as the Third Coalition, it was roughly as successful as the first two), Andrei joined the Russian army as an aide-de-camp to the overall Commander-in-Chief of the army, an old Russian named Kutuzov. Along with 80,000 or so other Austrians and Russians, on a December morning in 1805, Prince Andrei came face to face with Napoleon and his famous Grande Armée near a small town called Austerlitz.

Napoleon didn't actually lead his troops like this at Austerlitz, but artistic license...

The battle, sometimes called The Battle of the Three Emperors, since the Russian, French, and Austrian emperors were all present, was a a disaster for the Third Alliance, and effectively marked its end. The Russians and Austrians were defeated by the significantly smaller French forces, powered by the unique combination of brilliance and luck that allowed Napoleon to become Napoleon. Roughly a quarter of the Allied army was taken prisoner, and thousands more were killed, while the French experienced comparatively few casualties. The Austrians left the Alliance, and the Holy Roman Empire came to and end with many of its lands going to Napoleon and his allies. It's one of the great Napoleonic victories, one of the great tactical victories in world history, and marks possibly the high point of Napoleon's command over mainland Europe.

As for Prince Andrei, when the Russian forces were surprised by the French troops--who all reports had indicated were much farther away--he saw his moment for greatness. He grabbed a fallen Russian standard, and tried to single-handedly reverse a flow of retreating Russians:

"Forward, lads!" he shouted in a voice piercing as a child's.

"Here it is!" thought he, seizing the staff of the standard and hearing with pleasure the whistle of bullets evidently aimed at him. Several soldiers fell.

"Hurrah!" shouted Prince Andrew, and, scarcely able to hold up the heavy standard, he ran forward with full confidence that the whole battalion would follow him. 

And really he only ran a few steps alone. One soldier moved and then another and soon the whole battalion ran forward shouting "Hurrah!" and overtook him. A sergeant of the battalion ran up and took the flag that was swaying from its weight in Prince Andrew's hands, but he was immediately killed. Prince Andrew again seized the standard and, dragging it by the staff, ran on with the battalion.

His moment of glory didn't last long, however, as he was wounded and fell on the battlefield of Austerlitz. He was left for dead, but found alive by the French, taken prisoner, treated, and eventually returned to Russia a changed man. As consciousness left him that day, he saw the clear, blue sky above...

"How was it I did not see that lofty sky before? And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity, all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but that. But even it does not exist, there is nothing but quiet and peace. Thank God!..."

The sky over the Austerlitz battlefield.

We know all this because Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is fictional. He's one of the half-dozen or so viewpoint characters in Tolstoy's War & Peace, which I first read 19 years ago. If you're unfamiliar with the novel, the "War" of the title is the Napoleonic Wars between Russia and France. Both Andrei and his plain, devout sister Mary are viewpoint characters, and I was enamoured of both, even though I realized that, were they to be real, they most likely would have been very difficult to either know or like. But God, did I admire them. Especially Mary, but especially especially Andrei.

I haven't seen any of the War & Peace adaptations in full, but this one, with Brian Cox as Kutuzov--who we see getting over-ruled by an inexperienced Emperor Alexander--seems worth a look, judging by this slick (and violent--be warned) recreation of the opening of the battle. And Andrei looks just how I imagined him...

I was passingly familiar with the various Napoleonic campaigns--I'm good at Jeopardy!--but because of Tolstoy and Prince Andrei, Austerlitz cemented itself in my imagination. The name, however, led me to believe it was somewhere in Austria, and so, when I moved to Prague, it didn't immediately jump to mind as a possible trip. However, while at the time in 1805, Austerlitz was part of the Austrian Empire, it's actually a town in Moravia, and so, after a few false starts, I made a visit last weekend.

The Czech name of the town--Slavkov u Brna--gives away its general location, which is quite near Brno, about 3.5 hours train ride from Prague, or 2 hours by car. The town itself is rather small but charming, with Slavkov Castle on a hill at the end of the main street. The train station, and my hotel, were a short walk outside of town , so I didn't actually spend much time there. My focus was on the battlefield.

These historical markers about the battle are scattered across the entire area. "Bitva Tří císařů" means "Battle of the Three Emperors."

I planned my route around visiting the Pratzen Heights. Before the battle, to lure the Allies into attacking, Napoleon made peace overtures and overt demonstrations of weakness, such as having his army abandon the Pratzen Heights, the highest ground in the area. This worked--according to Tolstory on everyone but old Kutuzov--and the Russians and Austrians marched to take the heights, only to find themselves being quickly attacked by a French army they thought was a mile away. The fighting was brutal, and the Russian central line--where Prince Andrei would have been--was compromised. French artillery retook the heights and killed hundreds. 100 years after the battle, a peace memorial was installed on the Pratzen Heights. That was my goal.

I added a few other historical markers along the way. The Pratzen Heights are #2.

The battlefield area covers multiple villages and small towns--probably about 15 square kilometers or so (about 6 square miles). To save myself some time, I took a local train to the nearest village to the Pratzen Heights, and walked a path that essentially took me along the Russian front lines.

The trail was mainly through fields and farmlands.

Prace (pronounced Prah-tsa) is the Czech name for the village at the base of Pratzen Heights.

The rise on the left is the Pratzen Heights. It's not the only hill in the area, but it's definitely the largest.

Aside from the electricity wires and a few signs here and there, the battlefield is essentially the same as it was then, though now the fields mainly grow corn. There are bike trails and hiking trails criss-crossing the area, but I saw remarkably few people as I hiked. It was me, lots of field mice, the occasional hare, the vast sky and my imagination.

The lines are straighter than my routes, but it's a good approximation.

After a few hours, I reached Prace and started the ascent up the hill to the monument. Most people who visit it drive to it, and this is where I encountered 95% of the people I saw that day. In general, Slavkov and the areas around it do receive a good number of visitors--retirees interested in history, families looking for a day out, and literary nerds like me. There's even a re-enactment of battle every December.

The base of the monument has a chapel you can visit on a tour, with remains of soldiers who died in the battle.

The view from the heights was quite lovely. It was also easy to see why this area was so central to Napoleon's plans.

 I'd planned to stay longer at the peace monument--they have a cafe, and I got there at lunch time--but they didn't have any food. So, instead, I had a Coke, let my body temperature return to normal after climbing the hill, and began my descent down through the Russian lines. When I reached the center of the Russian lines, did I lie on the ground and look at the sky like Prince Andrei? I'm not saying I didn't...

Even for people who aren't interested in the battle or in Russian literature, the countryside itself offered a lot to enjoy.

Descending from the Pratzen Heights.

You'll find roadside crosses and shrines throughout the countryside.

Nature overtaking the works of man.

About halfway back to Slavkov.

The whole hike took about 4.5 hours, plus some time sitting at the monument. Of course, exploring the area in a car would be easier--it would certainly allow to to visit more of the area, since I was essentially totally unable to explore the French battle lines. But for me, what mattered was the (utterly fictional) story of one Russian soldier who wanted so badly to be a hero that he almost became one through sheer force of will before realizing that the things that matter are the things we see every day yet do not notice. And what better way to honor that spirit than to walk, on foot, see the field mice, feel the leaves, and wonder at the sky?

Having done this hike and a walking tour of Jane Austen's Bath a few years back, I'm already trying to decide were and when my next hike into the past will take me.

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