Explore unusual Czech ruins
The best time to explore romantic forgotten places is right now. Because in the spring, their walls are not covered with deciduous trees – and this will be especially useful where the path is more difficult and the search more difficult. For example, if you go to Jivina Forest u Dolní Rožínky, where it is hidden the torso of a strange buildingromantic and a little spooky. At the end of the 18th century it was built by Count Jan Nepomuk Mitrovsky and to this day it is still unclear what it actually was: an artificially constructed torso of a chapel, a forest theatre or just another piece in the mosaic of fairy-tale cornersthat adorn the nearby Temple Forest Park? Small romantic buildings were built by the Count in 1781-1799.
Windmill and Baroque granary
The ten-metre high walls, up to 1.2 metres thick at the ground, and a floor plan with a diameter of nearly 14 metres has the torso of the windmill near Příčov in the Sedlčany region. It can be measured, but almost nothing is known about its history, equipment or furnishings, and there are even doubts whether it really was a windmill: You will not find such a huge building in our country or elsewhere in Europe.. But unlike other buildings mill you don’t have to look hard: it’s worth on the hill above the village and has been unmissable for centuries.
A rarity among our ruins is also building in the Maxberk forest in Pošumava; summer guests from nearby Plánice referred to it on postcards as the remains of a castle from the time of Charles IV. They were mistaken by about five hundred years; it is actually part of a granary from the time of Maria Theresa. There are no signs to the place, you can get here by a forest path from Kvasetic.
The charm of old churches and chapels
On the portal Kudy z boredy you will find a number of ruins of old spiritual monuments, for example St. James Church in Jindřichovice pod Smrkem, of the monastery church in Kuklov, Church of St. Apolena near Primmda or the Church of St. Barbara near Všekar. These are mostly easily accessible places almost by the roadside, which you can find without much difficulty and often without a map. Many more adventurous experiences But even longer journeys await those who go in search of St. Nicholas Church on Mount Krudum near Horní Slavkov. It disappeared centuries ago and its foundations were discovered in 2002 by enthusiastic archaeology students.
The ruins will surprise you with their size of the old castle, the residence of the Windischgrätz family, which was built by rebuilding the monastery church that was abolished during the Josephine reforms; it is situated a short distance from Tachov, in the forest above the impressive riding hall in Světce. Alfréd I Windischgrätz had plans to build a lavish castle, and because he was an avid horseman, he also added the construction of a riding hall. He had it built in 1858-1861 in the Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Renaissance style. The spacious riding hall will impress you with its magnificence.
Hidden in the woods
Deep in the woods also stands the ruins of the Baroque chapel of St. John of Nepomuk near Klatovy; within the project of students University of West Bohemia in Pilsen Here, a few years ago, a unique floor was created, undulating like a water surface into which a giant drop of water fell. The drop, or an artwork made of bricks, has the same goal as the plaster ghost statues in the church of St. George in Lukova or the way of the cross u ruins of the church of St. Blažej in Branišov: to complement the monuments with an interesting and unusual element that could attract contemporary day-trippers.
They have been turned into a ruin in the middle of the woods as hunting lodge Mořičov near Ostrov in the Karlovy Vary region, so Baroque Chapel of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at the top of Břístevská hora; its walls can be seen from the D11 motorway in the direction from Prague to Hradec Králové at exit 18 Bříství. If you want to take a closer look at it, a yellow sign from Stary Vestec.
Iconic and very photogenic building is also Baroque summer palace with a Pauline monastery and the chapel of St. John the Baptist called Belveder; it stands on hill Vysoká near Suchdol, west of Kutná Hora, not far from the Vysoká lookout tower.
