The tower of the Church of St. Kunhuta, Nové Mesto na Morave © Ricky Yates
Following worship in Brno last Sunday evening, I stayed overnight with a family who are members of the congregation, in order on the next day, to meet up and have lunch with a Czech-British couple living near Olomouc. After a most enjoyable lunch, I headed back across the Vysocina (Highlands), in order to meet up with a Czech teacher of English, living and working in Žd’ár nad Sázavou, who has been using part of the text of this blog, as teaching material with his students.
Being ahead of myself time-wise for my meeting with the Czech teacher on Monday evening, I stopped off about ten kilometres short of Žd’ár nad Sázavou, to explore the small town of Nové Mesto na Morave. The town’s name literally means ‘New Town in Moravia’. But like many places bearing the name ‘Newtown’, nowadays it is many centuries old, having been founded in 1250.
Vratislavovo námestí is the main square in the town centre. Overlooking the square is the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to St. Kunhuta. The outside walls feature some remarkable sgraffito decoration with pictures illustrating Biblical stories, together with lives of the saints. Since visiting on Monday, I have discovered that these are the work of a local artist Karel Nemec, and date from the late 1920s.
Despite over forty years of Communist rule, all this wonderful artwork has survived and seems to have been renovated and restored fairly recently. I trust that the photographs that follow, illustrate what I mean, far better than my words.
The Nativity © Ricky Yates
The flight into Egypt © Ricky Yates
The Baptism of Christ © Ricky Yates
Peter being rescued by Jesus when walking on the water © Ricky Yates
The Transfiguration © Ricky Yates
St. Peter & St. Paul © Ricky Yates
St. Francis preaching to the animals © Ricky Yates
Hello again!
Thank you for this nice piece of travel writing! Good to see that you had a good time in the Highlands (for me, this is one of the least explored parts of our country, I should do something about that!). May I ask where did your lunch near Olomouc take place? Not that I would like to be nosy, but I myself come from that area (from Unicov, a little town not that far from the Bouzov castle where you, I am remember it correctly, officiated a wedding or two in the past), so you will understand my interest 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the post, Martin. I found that part of the Highlands delightful & have definitely put it on my list of places to re-visit & spend some more time in the near future.
My lunch was in a little hamlet called Kralicky, just outside Prostejov. And my apologies for some missing diacritics including one from the name of your home town but, as I’ve explained several times, for some reason the set-up of my blog cannot cope with them & instead renders them as question marks. As you wrote Unicov, it appeared as Uni?ov 🙁
What I might like to add about Nové Mesto is that being in the Czech-Moravian Highlands, it is one of the towns where, looking around, one can distinctly find two churches (similarly like in Wallachia or North Moravia) , a Catholic one and an Evangelical one. A person with a sense of architecture might even be able to distinguish the two at first glance. (I’ve been trying for years but unfortunately I’m not able to give names to the distinctive details that help me decide). In any case, both types are usually worth exploring 😉
Thank you for your comment, Katka. I presume what your saying is that Protestantism was/is stronger in the Highlands as it was/is in North Moravia, and therefore Protestant/Evangelical Churches are more frequent and obvious than in other parts of the Czech Republic.
Further to my reply to the previous comment by Martin, I had to edit your comment as my blog set-up cannot cope with certain diacritics including ‘e hácek’ and therefore had ‘Nové Mesto’ as ‘Nové M?sto’.
Gorgeous photos, Ricky. I really like those wall paintings and, as you say, it’s good that they survived. I know what you mean about all these old Newtowns. I used to work in the Powys one which was also founded in the C13th. 🙂
Thank you, Perpetua. I was most pleased the way the photos came out, aided by it being a very bright sunny Spring day as you can see by the blue sky in the first one. The problem with the name ‘New Town’ is that the place eventually ceases to be new. As I’m sure you’re aware, part of the historic centre of Prague is also called ‘Nové Mesto/New Town’, even though it is many centuries old 🙂
How old is Newcastle, I wonder? 😀
I love the Highlands, my father lived in Žd’ár for some time and we made trips there almost every year when I was a child; but I’ve never been to Nové Mesto… so this was a new sight for me! Thank you for sharing.
Precisely Hana! Places called ‘Newcastle’, once they are a few hundred years old, have exactly the same problem as places called ‘Newtown’ 🙂 I can understand your love of the Highlands from my trip across the northern part last Monday. How funny that you’ve been to Žd’ár many times, but not to Nové Mesto, when it is only about ten km further down the road.
It is. I have no idea how that happened, because I have been to other places nearby!
Hana – Make sure you do plan a visit to Nové Mesto the next time you are in Žd’ár nad Sázavou 🙂
Beautiful photos! Did you go into the church, Ricky? Or was it closed during the day?
Thank you Stephen. No I didn’t go in the Church I’m afraid, as it was locked. This was such a pity as I’m given to understand that there is further artwork by Karel Nemec decorating the walls inside.