Králíky The Mountain of Mother of God 2 Králíky The Mountain of Mother of God

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The Mountain of Mother of God and the town of Králíky

For more than three hundred years, the Mountain of Mother of God, the Marian place of pilgrimage, has been situated above the small town of Králíky. Therefore its history is closely connected with the history of the town. The small town of Králíky is surrounded by marvellous mountains and clean nature, and is situated in the northern part of Králíky Cutting, 560m above sea level. Nowadays, the town together with the nearby villages in the foothills has ca 5,000 in- habitants. The first trustworthy mention of this place is dated 1367; it is a record in the land register. According to it Charles IV gave the castle of Žampach together with the Mountains of Králíky (Montana in Greylichs), which were part of the manor, to Čeněk of Potštejn. However, this mention regards mines no more known nowadays. The town itself was founded later, i.e. in the 16th century, and is recorded for the first time in 1568. Zdeněk of Valdštejn, whose grandnephew was the well-known commander Albrecht of Valdštejn, purchased the town with ten villages in 1577. He chose Králíky as the site of his new manor, and started to build it up. Apart from the castle, the parish house and the Protestant temple (the today’s church of the Archangel Michael), he had the square shaped into the present form. Moreover, at his request Emperor Rudolf II con- ferred the right of three annual fairs on the town of Králíky, as stated by a document written in Czech. Probably iron and silver 4 ore was extracted in the surroundings. Therefore the town should have received crossed mining hammers with a sword into its municipal coat of arms. After the attempt to revive the mining in the 17th century, the amount extracted was so tiny that the shafts were definitively closed. Near the springs Tobiáš Jan Becker, who was born in Králíky and later held the Epis- copal office in Hradec Králové, had the impressive complex of pilgrimage built above the town in 1696-1710. A great deal of pilgrims came to the place of pilgrimage. In fact, frequent pilgrimages represented a source of livelihood for the poor inhabitants of Králíky. The production and sale of objects of pilgrimage spread very fast. The wooden carving developed as well; cribs and figures, which can be found all over the world nowadays, are testimony to this tradition. The cribs from Králíky were sold even in America like ‘Genuine Cribs from Vienna’. Other crafts also flourished, especially organ building and weaving. A lot of churches in the Czech Republic can be proud of the organ built in the organ workshop in Králíky. One of the most famous or- gans is situated on the choir in the church of Loreta in Prague. Weav- ing played an essential role in the life of the citi- zens of Králíky, and laid the foundation stone for the textile industry. The cloth made in Králíky was successfully sold in the whole country. The town of Brno was one of the most significant wholesale outlets: the cloth from Králíky found its way even to markets in Vienna. In the 18th century Králíky suffered fires, the plague and wars. Although no important bat- tles took place in the area, the town was tormented by marches of troops. Similarly to other areas of the country, squabbling,

5 plundering and collecting hush money became the order of the day. The fires in 1708 and in 1767 destroyed the major part of the town including the most significant buildings. These catas- trophes were followed by the plague which led steps of a great deal of the inhabitants to the Mountain of Mother of God. The sanctuary at the Mountain of Mother of God represented the only source of hope and of new courage and strength for facing the hard fate. The former wooden houses were gradu- ally substituted by the stone ones. After was ceded to Prussia, a lot of inhabitants coming from the region of Kłodzko transfe