Augezd

Augezd is a small village on the south east edge of the battlefield. It is famous as the site of the frozen Satschan pond, which feature in most descriptions of the battle. Our objective was to find the small church on the hill overlooking the village.

The church is on a steep hill overlooking the village, and the area over which the allied army retreated at the end of the battle. It is here that Napoleon ordered his artillery to fire on the allies as they retreated over the frozen ponds.

The church is not easy to find. It is quite close to the Pratzenberg monument, but the path leading south runs alongside a large collection of concrete buildings which was a Russian army communications base during the Cold War. We felt a little uneasy walking so close to the buildings, but no one stopped or questioned us. We eventually found the church, clinging to the side of a steep hill.

With the Pratzen in French hands, the allies fighting for Telnitz and Sokolnitz could only retreat to the south of the high ground between the villages of Augezd and Satschan. In 1815 this area was covered in a large pond. It was frozen, and the allies retreated over the hard ice. Napoleon ordered his artillery to fire on the ice, which broke up and he claimed that 20,000 allied troops drowned there. However when the ponds were drained some years later the remains of only two men and a handful of horses were found.

Stare Vinhorady

Stare Vinhorady (Old Vines) is one of the more difficult locations to find on the Austerlitz battlefield. I knew where it was on the map, and found the general area without difficulty, but could not find anything like a hill. It is part of the Pratzen ridge, so it provides excellent views towards the French position. But nothing to identify it as Stare Vinhorady as opposed to just part of Pratzen ridge.

This map shows the area covered during our various walks around the battlefield. All start at the Pratzenberg monument, called Pracky kopec on the map. Our exploration of Stare Vinhorady followed the green line north of the monument. Start Vinhorady is shown as just north of the crossroads. We found the path from Pratzenberg and followed it to the cross roads. But we could not see any hill as indicated by the contour on the map. The spot shown in the photo above is right in the middle of the contour shown on the map, but as you can see from the photo it was pretty flat!

We were lucky to have yet another sunny day, and we settled down amongst the cut hay with our picnic lunch, our maps and our photocopies to study the ground. There are really extensive views from here, and we could easily identify all the major villages. So it was also easy to identify the area where Vandamme and St Hilaire spearheaded the French attack. To our left St Hilaire led his division towards the village of Pratzen. Directly ahead Vandamme headed for Stare Vinhorady.

Vandamme had the toughest nut to crack, as the Russian Guard was on and behind Stare Vinhorady. As the two bodies of infantry struggled for possession of the Pratzen, the Russian Guard cavalry charged the French left flank and broke the 24^th regiment who were holding Stare Vinhorady.

Fortunately Napoleon was approaching, as the infantry broke and ran past him. He immediately ordered his only available reserve, his own Guard cavalry, to charge the Russian horsemen. Both sides fed reinforcements into the cavalry melee, but it was the French cavalry who won the day.

We spent all afternoon studying the area, walking the ground and enjoying the warm sun. Another of those very memorable battlefield visits which we remember with affection.

Telnitz and Sokolnitz

This is the view of Telnitz and Sokolnitz from The Pratzen. The allied attacks on the villages advanced over this ground. The first attack was on Telnitz, and then spread to Sokolnitz. Both villages changed hands during the battle, but both we retaken by the French before the end.
We spent a day walking the whole area around the two villages following the red outline above. First we followed the Austrian advance from the hill to Telnitz to the south. Then around the back of the village towards Sokolnitz, over the area where the French reinforced the village. And finally we had lunch on the small hill to the west of Sokolnitz, where the French counter attacks on the village were formed.

There was no path from the Pratzen to Telnitz in 1805, nor is there now. We tramped across the fields heading for the church tower of the village, much as the Austrian infantry must have done in 1805.


There were a number of attacks on each village. The French were driven out, received reinforcements and counter attacked throughout the day. The reinforcements came from Sokolnitz, and one column was fired on by their own comrades when it was mistaken for an allied attack (see accidental clash above). Walking from Telnitz to Sokolnitz we found the likely spot for this unfortunate mistaken exchange of fire.

In Sokolnitz we had a short break in the walled garden looking towards The Pratzen. Then we walked through the village and up to the small hill behind. In doing so we followed the route taken by the Russians as they stormed the village time and again. Each time the French rallied on the hill behind, and returned to retake the village. Here we had a picnic lunch and read our prepared accounts of the fighting.

The Pratzenberg

Austerlitz is blessed with three easy to find locations which give excellent views of the battlefield. Zurlan hill was Napoleon’s command post for the early part of the battle, and is the easiest to find. Nearby The Santon is easy to locate, though slightly more difficult to get to. The third is Pratzenberg. I had expected a long dominating ridge, but from the French position is looks quite flat. However the monument can be seen from any part of the battlefield.

The allied attacks on Telnitz and Sokolnitz came from Pratzenberg. It now contains a large monument to the battle, a small museum and a large car park. The immediate area has been landscaped, but does not alter the battlefield in the same way that The Lion monument does at Waterloo.

We were unable to hire bikes here to explore the battlefield, but fortunately it is not too large to cover on foot. Parking is not difficult in any of the villages, but we often used the car park at Pratzenberg because it is central and we wanted to follow the route of the allied attacks on Telnitz and Sokolnitz on foot. There are also convenient tracks leading to both Stare Vinorady (where the battle with the Russian Guard took place) and Augezd (where the French artillery fired on the retreating allied army as it tried to cross the frozen ponds).

Each day we visited the nearby motorway service station to get a supply of fresh rolls, fruit and a bottle of wine for our picnic lunch. We carried our rations in our haversacks, as we tramped the battlefield. We also had a folder with maps and photocopies, plus a couple of reference books. We would then drive to Pratzenberg and plan our tour for the day. We only used the car once or twice, mostly we explored on foot. The bemused car park attendant seemed quite surprised to see us turning up day after day. But he spoke no English, and we had to make do with an exchange of smiles.

Our first visit to Austerlitz had been memorable for such terrible weather. Heavy rain throughout both days that we spent here. We returned to our hotel in Brunn each night covered in mud and dripping water all over the carpets. This time we had warm, sunny days with a slight breeze. Ideal for walking and very pleasant to have our lunch gazing over sections of the battlefield and reading accounts of the battle.