The former centre of floating timber Purkarec is the small village on the left bank of the Vltava river about 8 km north of the small town Hluboká nad Vltavou.

It was founded together with the neighbouring Karlův Hrádek castle by King Charles IV in the first half of the 14th century. At the beginning of the 17th century it was a small town, but during the Thirty Years' War it was destroyed and then it only stayed a small village, which did not develop anymore.
The museum of rafting is located in the small house in the village, opposite the St. George's Church. This originally Gothic church from the 14th century has the Neo-Romanesque tower, which was added in the second half of the 17th century.

A few houses with frontages in the style of the so-called rural South Bohemian Baroque can be seen in Purkarec as well.
Some prehistoric burial mounds can be found in forests around the village.