TEREZIANSKY KATASTR
(The Land-Registry of Maria Theresia)

A list of land properties and other means that were to be taxed. The land-registry was drawn up during the rule of the empress Maria Theresia (the Queen of Bohemia in 1740 - 1780). Gaining the data for the registry had started already in 1713 (during the rule of her father, Charles 6th). In all localities were conducted so called "fasse", it means returns to tax (recorded on paper sheets). The "fasse" that concerned peasants and craftsmen was called "rustikální fasse". A final product was finished in 1748 when it was agreed how to tax yield of serfs. Its validy began on May 1st, 1748. Not only land property was registered, even town houses, crafts and Jews as well. This version from 1748 was submitted to the revision in 1757. The land-registry of Maria Theresia was applied up to the land-registry of her son, the emperor Joseph. After Joseph´s death in 1790, his brother Leopold 2nd used to use the registry from 1757 again. In a changed form its validy prolonged up to so called "stabilní katastr".

What a kind of information were registered in this source ?

In the "rustikální fasse" from 1713:

a) extract of first and last names of the heads of households from 1654 and how many fields they cultivated (see "Berni rula")

In the registry from 1748:

a) first and last names of the heads of households
b) yield from fields, meadows, heathland, hay, aftermath, bushes

The yield was assessed in the following measures: fields, meadows, heathland in "strich" and "vertel" hay, aftermath, bushes in "fura".

Then "strich", the "vertel" and "fura" had a different size from a place to place. After 1765 (when Habsburgs tried to unify measures) 1 "strich" = 93, 589 litres (1 litre = 2,1 US pints), the "vertel" = 23,396 litres.
The "fura" also depended on a quality of soil. If the quality was good, then e.g. from 0,11 hectare of a best meadow it was possible to gain 2 "fura" of hay and 1 "fura" of aftermath (1 hectar = 2,471 acres) or from 0,22 hectare of an average meadow it was possible to gain 1 "fura" of hay.

In "rustikalni fasse" the land properties were recorded in virtue of their "polození" (= location) in a locality. Localities usually consisted of several "polození" (e.g. in New York it is a part called Bronx. It is called Bronx, but it is still the city of New York. For our purpose we could call it a suburb).

On account of yield the quality of soil was mentioned. The quality of soil was devided into three sections: good, average, bad. As for the land property, registered were e. g. field, meadow, grassland, forest, heathland.