Králíky The Mountain of Mother of God 2 Králíky The Mountain of Mother of God 3 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 Silesia was ceded to Prussia, a lot of inhabitants coming from the region of Kłodzko transferred to Králíky, and the amount of people living there started to increase. The town of Králíky became the site of the so-called Reg- ulated Municipal Authorities in 1791. Under the regional restructuring in 1850, the District Court and the Tax and the Land Offices were set up. Despite short breaks, the District Court worked there for nearly 100 years. In the second half of the 19th century the town experi- enced an enormous and quick development: in 1889 the 6 local railway between Dolní Lipka and Štíty was opened, factories, new highways, a water conduit, a gas plant and, last but not least, new living houses were constructed. In the run-up to the Second World War the majority of the inhabitants of the town, which was called Grulich in Ger- man, were of German origin. In the time before the war the area was under the strong influence of the Nazism. For that reason the Czechoslovak government decided to do a project on a system of fortifications. Then the sub- stantial part of it was built just in the region of Králíky. In 1937 President Edvard Beneš visited the town of Králíky within his inspection of the ongoing construction of the fortifications. Under Munich Agreement Králíky and its surroundings were violently seceded from Czechoslo- vakia, and ceded to Germany in 1938. In the same year Adolf Hitler came to Králíky in order to check the system of fortifications built by the Czechoslovak government. During the Second World War parts for fighter aircrafts were made in the factories situated in the town. The major output was produced by people taken captive. On the top of the hill called Výšina the building of a concentration camp was started; fortunately, the Nazis did not manage to bring it into operation before the end of the war. In the aftermath of the war the German citizens were displaced, and the town was in danger of its total devas- tation. However, the re-settlement succeeded so that no significant destruction occurred. The historic centre of the town ranks among the best conserved town centres in the wide surroundings, and it was declared the listed town zone in 1990. As far as the latest events are concerned, the opening of the new town hall in 1997 and the approval of the new municipal flag by the Lower House of the Parliament in 1999 are of importance. 7 8 The history of the place of pilgrimage Tobiáš Jan Becker, the founder of the place of pilgrimage Tobiáš Jan Becker was born in a poor but pious family in Králíky in 1649. Finished the studies, he was ordained to the priesthood, and was entrusted with the pastoral care in different parishes. Around 1695 he became a canon in St Vitus’ Cathedral in Prague. Pope Clement XI appointed him as bishop in Hradec Králové on April 3, 1701. He was a very pious man and a fervent worshipper of the Virgin Mary. Daily he spent hours on prayers and meditations in front of the Cross and in front of the image of the Virgin Mary. As bishop he was very modest and lived without any pomp. In the same way he managed the household. He was generous to the poor. His zeal for advancement of the Christians’ religious life was also known, and he sought the conversion of the unbelievers. He often came to the Mountain of Mother of God, and experienced happy moments in front of the Miraculous Image. He died in September 1710. There is his commemorative plaque on the wall of the parish church in Králíky by the entrance. The foundation of the place of pilgrimage The complex of pilgrimage is situ- ated on the top of the Mountain of Mother of God 760m above sea level. In the time of the 30-year war (1618-1648) this mountain was 9 desolate, completely without any vegetation, and therefore it was called the Plain Mountain. For unknown reasons children’s pro- cessions came to this place that time; children prayed and sang Marian songs there. The small Tobiáš Jan Becker (1649-1710), the later founder of the place of pilgrimage, used to be among them. That time he came to the idea to build a church on the top of the Plain Mountain when grown up. After his studies, he became a priest and later even a canon in St Vitus’ Cathedral in Prague. Due to the fact that the processions towards the Plain Mountain continued, and more and more people from the wide surroundings took part in them, Fr Schliemann, the parish priest of that time in Králíky, drew the attention of Canon Becker to those processions, and reminded him about his promise from childhood. Tobiáš Jan Becker ac- quired the permit of the bishop, and together with other fervent friends he set to the building of the church and the cloister at the top of the Plain Mountain in 1696. It is said that the foundations of a former temple were discovered in course of the construction of the church; people even believed in the pre-Christian origin of that temple. Singing songs in honour of the Virgin Mary they carried timbers and stones to the mountain, often even in bare hands. Workers and craftsmen coming from the wide surround- ings assisted as well, and believed the Virgin Mary would help them in their lives when asking no wages.