Build a wall

The village of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic started as two little towns on either side of a river, Cesky and Krumlov.

They fought. They argued over natural resources, selling concessions, trade and more. They viewed each other with suspicion, told stories about how uncouth and awful the other side was, and were generally on the verge of fighting, all the time.

It was a time of walls. It was not unusual for a village to protect itself by erecting a wall. Massive effort would go into building the wall and then supplying soldiers to man it all the time. These villages were small and poor. A wall would be expensive and hard to maintain. But because of their mistrust of each other, they both petitioned a local ruler to provide them with a wall.

The local ruler of the broader domain built a bridge instead. That was in the 15th Century. Now they see themselves as one village, with a shared future and a united purpose.

They thought the people on the other side of the river were their enemies. Turns out they were their brothers.