Religious monuments and places of pilgrimage are a great part of architectural heritage of the Czech Republic.
Although most of the churches, monasteries, chapels and pilgrimage places are Roman-Catholic, there also are many Jewish and Christian Orthodox sights. Religious architecture has gone through more than thousand years' development. Christianisation came to Bohemia in the 9th century with coming of Cyril and Methodius to the Great Moravia, and afterwards the adoption of Christianity by Prince Bořivoj and his wife Ludmila. At that time the sovereigns had the first churches built. Gradually the first orders came to Moravia and Bohemia, where they originated the first monasteries as the cultural and educational centres.
The cult of worshiping the saints in the Catholic Church was interrupted by Hussitism (also known as the Hussite movement) and its revival. The comeback of the cult followed after more than two hundred years in the connection with reauthorisation of the Catholic Church in the 18th century. At that time our country turned strictly Catholic. The Marian cult grew rapidly together with constructions of big public cathedrals, a variety of thanksgiving columns and pilgrimage places (more than 300 have been preserved) on the whole territory of Bohemia and Moravia. The most worshipped saint was Jan Nepomucký (St.John of Nepomuk), whose sculpture graced nearly every bridge or village square.
Due to numerous wars and fires, which had been destroying the Czech Lands for centuries, but above all due to the reign of Joseph II in the late 18th century, many of the religious monuments did not survive. Joseph II prohibited pilgrimages, abolished churches and monasteries.
Another blow was dealt the monuments by forty years of communist era. As a result of the ignorance of the regime, many of the sights decayed and some of them completely dilapidated into ruins. Today, many sights are restored to their original splendor; also revived is the tradition of Marian pilgrimages. The most significant and historically most famous religious monuments have been included on the UNESCO list of the cultural and natural heritage (Kutná Hora, the historic centre of Prague, the gardens of Kroměříž, Zelená Hora). For more, visit the Regions section.
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