Hošťálková is a long village on the slopes of the Hostýn Hills, close to Vsetín. It is located 379 metres above sea level and has the population of 2,000 people. It was founded during a colonization in the 14th century. The first records about Hošťálková date back to 1505 when it was a part of the Vsetín domain. Since 1678 it frequently changed owners. In the beginning settlement was scattered and related to the stage of the colonization.
There were two kinds of colonization in the area of Wallachia: “clearing colonization“ during which arable land was gained at the expense of feudal woods, and “Wallachian colonization“ (peasant colonization) when greenwoods were used as pastures for goats and sheep. Menials looking after the livestock were called Wallachians. They are believed to have been rebels originally coming from todays Romania. The whole area got its name after them finally – Wallachia.
The 17th and the 18th centuries brought a severe oppression of the Wallachian Protestants and the years 1777–1781 witnessed a Wallachian uprising which was put down in a very cruel way. Paradoxically, it however helped the issuing of the Toleration Patent by Joseph II.
The Hošťálková Evangelic congregation was established in 1782 and the believers chose the Augsburg confession. Nevertheless, they used to meet already before, at the time of the counter-Reformation.
As early as in 1783 a wooden toleration house of prayer was built, and the second one, Neo-Classicist and made of stone followed in 1831 and was built still under the toleration restrictions. Inside, we can find a valuable baptistery from 1791. The tower was raised in the middle of the 19th century and the rectory, a necessary part of the Hošťálková congregation, was built even three times, and totally rebuilt according to Bohumil Bareš‘s architectural design after World War II. The new congregation house was opened in 1950 and has served the congregation purposes since then. The church has been repaired several times, too, and a new organ was bought in 1964.
The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross Elevation in Hošťálková dates back to 1798. There is an Empire castle from the middle of the 19th century in the village and a memorial commemorating those killed in World War II.