Abstract
Peripheral (marginal) areas are often defined as being: at the edge of interest, dependent on the core (both in economic and political terms) and rather stagnant in their development. Yet sometimes events may occur - often caused by external factors - that lead to dynamic changes in such peripheral areas, impacting local landscapes as well as the communities that inhabit them.
On the one hand, these events may result in further marginalization of some peripheries, on the other hand, they may positively stimulate the development of others. Thus, it is necessary to study the importance of such events in the transformation of peripheral areas as a means of understanding their current position.
This article discusses processes related to such events, changes caused by them and additional consequences, using the specific example of the Czech borderland. During the second half of the 20th century, this particular area was influenced by, at least, the following two major events, which resulted in spatial polarization and impacted the area's landscape development: depopulation, due to the transfer of Czech Germans after the World War II, and subsequent resettlement and the opening of the borderland areas after the fall of iron curtain in 1989.
These events not only affected the character of landscapes in the borderland peripheries, in the long term, they also represent major turning points in their development. The paper first introduces the study of peripheries in Czech geography, highlighting different types of borderland peripheries and their landscapes.
A second section focuses on one particular periphery: the Žlutice micro-region. Using this area as an example, the article demonstrates and discusses the impact of various events (postwar depopulation and repopulation, settlement polarization, the establishment of a military training area, etc.) on the landscape and the lives of people inhabiting it.