Moravia – Page 3

Two Moravian Churches and a brief visit to Poland

Moravia 1 — Wooden Church in Bílá, Moravia © Ricky Yates

The modern-day state of the Czech Republic is made up of what was historically known as Bohemia and Moravia, together with a small part of Silesia. Bohemia forms the western part of the country with Prague at its centre, whilst Moravia forms the eastern part where the country’s second city Brno, is located. The bulk of Silesia now lies in Poland with only a very small part being contained within the borders of the Czech Republic, in the far north-eastern corner of the country.

On the afternoon of Thursday 30^th September, we drove from Litomyšl, which is in East Bohemia, further eastwards into South Moravia, to the little town of Vizovice. The main claim to fame of Vizovice is that the very best variety of Slivovice (Czech plum brandy) is distilled within the town, a fact that we were told every time we ever mentioned that we were going there!

We spent from that Thursday evening, through to lunchtime on Saturday 2^nd October, in a simple but pleasant ‘glorified youth hostel’, located in the beautiful wooded hills above Vizovice, attending the synod of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. We were given the synod dates after we had booked our holiday dates so decided to incorporate our synodical attendance into our travel plans. As the discussions were all in Czech and mainly about a new Church constitution which was finally adopted early on the Friday evening, I won’t write anything more about it here in this blog post other than saying that we were very well looked after and enjoyed the fellowship.

Following the end of the synod, we left Vizovice and set off to drive through the beautiful wooded hills of the far east of Moravia. Our journey took us through numerous small towns and villages, many of which welcome walkers and cyclists in summer and skiers in winter. Our scenic journey briefly took us across the border into Slovakia before, a few km later, we returned to the Czech Republic. Soon afterwards, we passed through the village of Bílá and spotted this beautiful wooden Church. Apparently, there are only a few of these in Moravia but are more commonly found in Slovakia.

We ended the day in the somewhat industrial town of Ceský Tešín which is located in the Czech part of Silesia. In many respects, Ceský Tešín is only half a town – the other half lies across the Olše River in Poland and is called Cieszyn. As part of the settlement that followed the end of the First World War, in July 1920 the town was divided between the newly formed nation of Czechoslovakia and Poland, using the natural divide of the Olše River.

Having found a very pleasant and reasonably priced room in the Central Hotel in Ceský Tešín, we decided to take the advice of our guidebook which declared that the most interesting and historic parts of the town were on the other side of the river. So we set out on a short walk and crossed Hlavní Most, one of the two bridges across the Olše, and entered Poland, the first time I had ever set foot in the country and only the second time that Sybille had.

Unfortunately, it was just getting dark as we walked up a cobbled street into the main square of Cieszyn so I don’t have any pictures though we were able to enjoy the architecture as some buildings were floodlit. And after Sybille had withdrawn some Zloty from a Polish ATM, we enjoyed a pleasant drink and meal in a bar-restaurant on the main square before returning across the river to our bed in the Czech Republic.

Moravia 2 — Chapel dedicated to the late Brother Roger of Taize, Ceský Tešín © Ricky Yates

The next day being Sunday, we joined the congregation who worship in this rather unusual Church. It is located behind a supermarket and the building was formerly a flower shop and a shoe repair shop! Now it is the Chapel dedicated to the late Brother Roger of Taize where a small Old Catholic congregation worship, led by Dr Cezary Mizia. Cezary is Polish and was originally a Roman Catholic priest. He conducted the service, partly in Czech and partly in Polish. He preached in Czech and English for our benefit!

Moravia 3 — Interior of Chapel dedicated to the late Brother Roger of Taize, Ceský Tešín © Ricky Yates

Moravia 4 — The Olše River & Hlavní Most - Poland on the left & the Czech Republic on the right © Ricky Yates

After the service, we walked with Cezary’s wife Alice and their little baby Jeremias, back over the border into Poland where I took this photo from the castle mound looking down on Hlavní Most and the Olše River. We did this whilst Cezary was busy back in their apartment, preparing lunch for us all. Lunch was a little like French Sunday lunch with innumerable courses! However, it did have a Polish flavour as Sybille & Cezary both downed at least three shots of Polish vodka which had to accompany certain courses! Alice and I were fortunately able to avoid the vodka as we both had the excuse of needing to drive later in the day.

It was late afternoon on Sunday 3^rd October before we finally bid farewell to Cezary, Alice & Jeremias and set out once again to explore more of the Czech Republic. Before doing so, I helped with feeding Jeremias his lunch as you can see below!

Ricky & Jeremiah — Me feeding Jeremias © Sybille Yates

An English – Czech Wedding in Moravia

Phil & Lenka 1 — With Lenka & Phil in the courtyard of Valtice Castle © Ricky Yates

On Friday 10^th September, I conducted my third wedding in just under four weeks when Phil, an Englishman, married Lenka, a Czech. However, unlike the two previous weddings which I’ve described in earlier blogposts, this wedding took place over 270 km southeast of Prague in the small Moravian town of Valtice which lies very close to the border with both Austria and Slovakia.

In order to be sure that I arrived on time for the wedding and in a well prepared state, we chose to drive to Valtice the previous afternoon. The bulk of the journey was along the Prague-Brno motorway which was originally constructed during the Communist era. The section nearer to Brno still has the original concrete road surface which is horribly uneven and extremely noisy to drive on. But other than some slight traffic delays leaving Prague, the rest of the journey was fine except for having to drive through a couple of very heavy downpours.

We arrived in Valtice around 8pm just as it was getting dark. We managed to make phone contact with Phil the bridegroom who met us in the town square and directed us to Penzion Duo where he had kindly booked a room for Sybille and me to stay for two nights. Once we had unloaded our belongings and safely parked the car, we joined Phil and his father Tim at Avalon restaurace a cajovna for our evening meal.

After a good nights sleep, the Friday morning dawned fine and sunny. We were treated to a late breakfast at Restaurace Albero which is where all the guests had been asked to gather and to where we all returned later in the afternoon and evening for the wedding reception.

Phil & Lenka 4 — Valtice Castle © Ricky Yates

The wedding itself took place in the chapel of Valtice Castle, an amazing baroque structure that used to be the main residence of the Liechtenstein family who now reside in the Principality of the same name having fled Valtice as the Soviet army advanced eastwards in April 1945. It provided a wonderful venue for the marriage service as well the perfect location for photographs afterwards.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the whole day was the keeping of a variety of wedding customs, some of which are peculiar to Moravia. Before the happy couple were allowed to lead their guests into the wedding reception, they had to cut a loaf of bread in two with a wooden knife. Then a plate was broken and Phil and Lenka were given a dustpan and brush to sweep up all the broken pieces, to promote the idea of being able to work together in a healthy manner throughout their marriage.

Phil was then required to carry his bride over the threshold and into the reception. However, because the restaurant is on the first floor, this meant carrying her up two flights of stairs! Then once seated, a large towel was wrapped around the two of them and they were required to feed each other from one bowl of soup using one spoon, once more to encourage them to cooperate together.

Phil & Lenka 2 — The first dance with bubbles being blown © Ricky Yates

Later, when Phil and Lenka took to the dance floor for the first dance, various guests blew bubbles at them, as Sybille and I both agreed, far nicer than having rice or confetti thrown at you! This was a custom that we had already seen previously at Jan and Allison’s wedding six days earlier.

Phil & Lenka 3 — Trying to catch the bouquet! © Ricky Yates

Finally, there was the more widespread tradition of the bride throwing her bouquet over her shoulder with her unmarried female friends and relatives lined up trying to catch it and thus be the next one to get married.

This was the first time we had visited southern Moravia other than driving through it on the motorway on our way to Turkey October 2009. We very much liked what we saw and hope to return there and explore the area further, hopefully in the not too distant future.

My first Czech Wedding

Lea & Petra at Bouzov Castle © Ricky Yates

Earlier this year I received an email from an English young man called Lea, asking if there was a Czech language version of the Anglican ‘Common Worship’ Marriage Service. He was planning to marry a Czech young lady called Petra, at a venue near her home town of Olomouc in the east of the Czech Republic, and this was the liturgy that they wanted to use. As there would be both English and Czech speakers attending the wedding, they wanted the text in both languages.

One of the many helpful things left by my predecessor John Philpott, was a ‘Word document’ containing exactly the text that Lea had asked for. I forwarded it to him but wrote an accompanying note asking who was going to use it? If they were going to be married by an English-speaking minister from one of the Czech Churches, then surely that minister would want to use his/her own Church’s liturgy. On the other hand, if they were going to have a Czech civil ceremony followed by a Church service conducted by an Anglican priest imported for the occasion, then it was common courtesy for me, as the Anglican priest for the area concerned, to be consulted.

In reply, Lea and Petra explained that they didn’t yet have anyone to use the liturgy. But they had booked their wedding venue, the ‘chapel’ in Bouzov Castle, and that they had met with the local registrar and were in the process of completing all the necessary preliminaries to enable a legal wedding to take place. Once I explained that, because of my status as a priest in the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, I could legally marry them, then they promptly invited me to do so. Thus on Friday 3^rd July, I conducted my first Czech wedding and my first wedding of any variety since mid-August 2008.

Olomouc is a historic city in Moravia, part of the Czech Republic that neither of us had previously visited. Although it should only take about two and a half hours to drive there from Prague, we decided not to risk it and drove down on the Thursday evening in order to ensure we reached the wedding venue in good time the next day. Some good internet research by Sybille found us a very comfortable double room in the Poet’s Corner Hostel, an extremely interesting establishment owned and run by an ex-pat Australian.

Our ‘Lonely Planet’ Guide to the Czech & Slovak Republics describes Olomouc as ‘Prague minus the tourists’ and it is an apt description. We ate our evening meal in an open air restaurant on the square in the historic centre of the city. The architectural views surrounding us are reminiscent of Old Town Square in Prague. However, other than a small amount of German, we heard no other language spoken that evening except Czech and were far from being surrounded by hordes of people.

The next morning, after leisurely breakfast, we put on our best clothes and set off on the forty minute drive to Bouzov Castle. The castle is situated in the small village of Bouzov set in the rolling wooded hills of Moravia. It was a spectacular sight to see as we drove towards it. After parking in the official car park, we walked up to the main entrance to await the arrival of the wedding party. We had been warned that we would need to be admitted as one group all together to avoid any confusion, as the castle is also open to paying visitors. Eventually, everybody arrived and we were all escorted over the castle bridge and up the stairs to the the ‘chapel’.

As we had discussed back in April when I had met Lea & Petra for the first time, everybody had an order of service with the English liturgy on one side and the Czech translation on the other, using the very material that had been the subject of Lea’s original enquiry. Whilst I conducted the service in English, I did manage to greet the congregation at the beginning in Czech. I was assisted by a wonderful lady called Ivana, who helped Petra make her vows in Czech after Lea had made his in English. She also translated my short address into Czech.

My greatest fear was getting the registration of the marriage wrong. In advance of the service, I had filled out a four-page form all in Czech, which being part of Czech bureaucracy, inevitably required an immense amount of detailed information about the bride and groom, their respective parents, both witnesses and me. This included full name and address, date and place of birth, birth number for Czechs, passport number for non Czechs! Fortunately, John Philpott had also left me an annotated version of this form with guidance as to how to fill it out. Having completed it following his instructions, I got the ever-faithful Gerry Turner to double check what I’d done in Czech, before we set out for Olmouc.

It is this form, rather than two sets of Church registers, that is signed during the wedding service. Again, as I have explained previously in this blog, not only signed but, much more importantly, stamped!! As I raised my hand above the stamp that declares us to be the English-speaking parish of the Old Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, I said in English & Ivana said in Czech, “This is the most important part of a Czech marriage service!” Everybody smiled and laughed as I very firmly slammed the stamp down. It is this signed and stamped form which must be returned to the local registrar within two working days. The registrar will then issue the happy couple with their marriage certificate.

The service over, we were all escorted back out of the castle and then the newly married Lea and Petra walked down from the castle bridge hand-in-hand. As you can see, you cannot really have a much better setting than Bouzov Castle for your wedding photographs. An evening reception followed back in Olomouc.