secret well

Deep in a forest - you have to trek a good couple of kilometres uphill from the nearest road - lies, completely hidden, this little spring. No path leads to it. And hardly anyone knows about it - I've lived here 9 years now and no-one mentioned it until a wonderful female friend took me there, with her little daughter. 'I'll show you something truly out of this world', she said. And it was. Someone, long time ago, took the trouble to build a stone-home for this clear spring, perhaps because they thought it healing. And perhaps it is. And then, - I guess in the 19th century judging by its style - someone took the trouble to carve a figure in deep thought and reverence, to gaze into its source. And someone, now, took the trouble to bring a string of beads to adorn the statue, and left a couple of mugs for passers-by who are in on the secret.
We sat in equal reverence, gazing into the water so clear that you could hardly see it. And we drank - to our health.

Czech Christmas Mass

We've just returned from a lovely concert at the Zlata Koruna monastery church - respecting the tradition so beloved of such a vast number of Czechs that it is almost unthinkable for them not to attend this yearly church event - even if they never otherwise go to church, and irrespectful of denomination, or even whether they are believers - every Christmas time. What is it they so need to be part of year after year? Their 'own' Christmas Mass, sung and played by professionals and amateurs from the smallest village churches to impressive cathedrals all over the country: it's a mass by Jan Jakub Ryba, composed in 1786 on folk motifs, and with words so delightfully pastoral and naive that the sheer simplicity and joy of it takes you along.
I searched for a suitable clip and found the best and the most 'authentic' performance on this Youtube series - though the camera work leaves a lot to be desired :-) it has the right tempo and spirit. But to see quite how popular the Mass is, do take a look at this street singalong in Prague : it nicely illustrates how most people here know their Mass off by heart and how beloved it is by all generations.

The story of the imprisoned Nun

Re the comment below, this is the story as it is told by the locals (short version):
There is a big monastery with an impressive church right in the middle of the Latran quarter in Krumlov. Now it is back in the Knights of the Cross' ownership, but whether they owned it in those olden times from whence this story comes, I don't know. The church itself is remarkable by its Black Madonna - but I will stick to the story of the Nun.

In her days, there was a nunnery and a monastery right next door to one another, and the nuns and the monks shared the church for the services. They were not allowed to speak or to meet of course, their lives were to be separate, except it would have been hard for the occupants of these fine institutions not to catch glimpses of the other sex out of windows, or indeed on the way to the church. And so our Nun became enamoured of a rather handsome Monk, and he, too, fell in love - but what to do? They managed to exchange glances, or pass a few written notes to one another but their feelings became unbearable, so when an opportunity arose, they took it: once in a while, the monks and the nuns all went to the nearby Kajov church for a pilgrimage - following the route marked by the shrines. The nuns started off first - the monks sufficiently later so as to not be tempted. But once in the forest, our Nun sneaked off the path and waited in the thicket, and when the monks passed by, our monk did the same. The idea was that while all the others were at the service in Kajov, they would have a passionate time together, and then wait for the procession to go back so as to join it again, and no-one would be any wiser. But their passion was so strong they forgot about time - and they were discovered by the nuns returning from the service. The rest of the story is in the post below: - she got walled into the nearest shrine, and he went and rescued her before she died of suffocation or claustrophobia inside. And then, one would like to hope, they ran off, lived happily, and so on...

So the story isn't about an anchorite - though it may have been invented centuries after the shrine was built! This 'shrine' may have well been purpose-made for an anchorite, because it is tall and narrow, and doesn't look like an ordinary shrine-design! Mind boggles :-)

dreaming shrines

Phil's contribution below has prompted me to tell you about the hundreds of little shrines and chapels that you can find by the roadsides here, but also dotted about the countryside, even hidden in the middle of forests. Potok in her own blog, and I in this, have both mentioned them already, but maybe these little gems deserve another look.
In the old days, these shrines and chapels served two main purposes:
1/ to mark the travellers' and pilgrims' paths from monastery to monastery, or 2/ to provide a circular route with the Stations of the Cross, which served the Catholic pilgrimage festivals (the most remarkable of these circular routes in this area is by the village and monastery of Římov, well worth a visit). Then there are the odd solitaires - suddenly in the middle of nowhere, you will find a cross or a small shrine seemingly out of context - but these usually mark places where someone wanted to give thanks for a fortunate meeting, or had some moment of revelation, or they mark a spring that used to be regarded as healing.
Then of course there are also the 'guardian' crucifixes or shrines, usually at some crossroads, because even in the pre-Christian, pagan, times, the crossroads were always regarded as magical places, where witches and devils might have lurked, so the shrines and the crucifixes are there for the protection of the travellers.

Well, some of the old paths have by now become major roads, some fell into disuse or were planted over by forestry. But even in the dense forests, wherever you should come upon such a forgotten shrine that seems like something out of a dream, you may be certain that the ground nearby bears a distinct groove where the ancient road would have been, and where you can imagine the hundreds of feet and horse-hooves that once trod this well-worn path. I am told that if you follow these monastery-to-monastery paths*, you are actually walking on ley-lines, as the monasteries were already built on places of such power. That's if you like to believe in these things.
The photos here are from a walk I took in the Autumn, a walk that starts with a shrine outside our house and leads into a forest not more than a mile away. This beautiful little chapel on the right (consecrated, so people still hold services there) has beautifully carved seats and a proper altar -
and further on, right in the depth of the forest, is this tall, narrow shrine with no opening at all - the legend has it a nun was walled into it as a punishment for an affair with a monk, who, in turn, came in the night to break the walls to rescue her. A long story, which would take too long to tell here, but another impulse for contemplation when one stops for a moment on one's forest walk.

Phil is right to mention the statistics about the Czechs being the most Atheistic nation in Europe, but they love their shrines (they survived, relatively, even during Communism) and even now, as you pass, you can see in almost every one of them at least a little flower, if not a candle or a picture, because you never know, they might still hold the power to grant your wishes or have your prayers answered :-)

*These paths make wonderful walking itineraries. See www.mapyonline.cz where you can purchase a map that clearly marks all the hundreds of chapels and shrines - Shocart, No 36

Architecture heaven

The sight of what looks like a round church in the post called "In response" reminds me to say that the countryside in southern Bohemia is architecture heaven. I think most Brits who like old buildings would be seriously impressed with what you find in the region. What you see down here is different from the kind of grandeur you get in Prague. Small and not-so-small churches (soaring medieval or ornate baroque), tiny wayside shrines, castles on crags, and some of the houses...wow! In fact the photograph with the church has one in the background – a courtyard farm with a curvy baroque front all done out in plasterwork. There are whole villages of these, and I'll post some pictures when I get my digital photographs sorted out.

Ice or not ice? (lake house)

In response to Potok's question below, the skiers are not dragged over ice but over a snowy field. Great stuff, especially when done quite fast! There is a small and very friendly stable nearby with whom we have been able to develop a really lovely relationship so we can do fun stuff like that - would be interesting to know whether Health and safety people would like to see this, though, so I'd better not tell you who they are (anyway that would be advertising and we have vowed not to).
But here is positively the last ice and snow pic, just to show you how one can indeed walk on water. The lake in question is Olsina, actually a very old man made pond (15C) that used to belong to the Rozmberk aristocratic family (between them and various big monasteries they owned practically the whole of South Bohemia) and was - still is - used to farm carp. Each two years the pond gets drained so the carp-farmers can get at the fish more easily as the water recedes. It's fascinating to watch because it looks like the water is boiling with all the fish fighting for the diminishing amount of space in the rapidly draining water. Nowadays the fish is sold at Christmas time as carp is the traditional Christmas dish in Czecho.
My goodness, I seem to've veered very far from my original blog theme. Oh well.

Undiscovered jewel?

‘The Crown jewel of Bohemia’ – that’s how people in the know describe Cesky Krumlov, a tiny mediaeval town close to the Austrian border. We love being here, and this non-commercial blog is just to record our thoughts and feelings about the town, and the area, and to give you an idea about life here should you ever come to visit.

THE PLACE

The town sits in the foothills of Sumava, a region of National Parks and protected Areas of Natural Beauty. It nestles in the crook of the river Vltava, and its narrow, cobbled, higgledy-piggledy streets are overlooked by a huge castle that towers on the rocks above. My English friends fondly describe the castle’s older parts as ‘Gormenghast’, while the Czechs are more prone to sing praises to its richly painted Renaissance buildings and the mystical tower bearing Alchemical symbols that tie it to the times when South Bohemia was a place of John Dee’s retreat.

In fact, the adjectives ‘magical’, or ‘fairytale’ are the ones most frequently heard from the lips of visitors who gaze at Krumlov for the first time, while its Czech residents nod their heads sagely, and say quite seriously that indeed there is deep magic under these rocks – healing springs issuing from silver and graphite veins below, and ley-line crossroads that later materialised in the many Celtic roads and settlements, marked to this day by standing rocks and little chapels dotted around the town, or hidden in the forests nearby.

But the romantic description doesn’t end here: every house has a story to tell, their painted facades often hide clues to their former occupants, and walking around the town is like a journey through a historic puzzle that is still waiting to be deciphered.

And for those who like to immerse themselves in this old-world atmosphere, the town offers wonderful restaurants serving mediaeval style meals, crafts markets, gypsy bands, even festivals where the residents dress up to parade around the town, and perform Summer solstice or Christmas traditional plays, or passion plays for Easter.