Písek is a pleasant riverside town of 30,000 people not far from where the waters of the Otava River join the mighty Vltava below Zvíkov castle. It's far from being Bohemia's most intact historic town, but Písek does have some outstanding individual pieces of medieval architecture and many of the modern buildings that interrupt the streetscapes are interesting and attractive in their own right.
Písek is the Czech word for sand and the name refers to the gold-bearing flat-bottomed river that was the main source of the town's wealth. Thanks to finds of ceramic utensils, archaeologists believe gold was panned at Písek as far back as the bronze age, but the earliest written record is from 1336 in the time of King John of Luxembourg.