Blog posts

Posts

A Hackers Manifesto, verze 4.0, kapitola 4.

By samotar, 10 January 2023

Trnovou korunou a tankem do srdíčka

By samotar, 2 July 2022

Hakim Bey - Informační válka

By samotar, 26 March 2022

Václav Cílek: Záhada zpívající houby

By samotar, 15 February 2022

Guy Debord - Teorie dérive

By samotar, 21 January 2022

Jack Burnham – Systémová estetika

By samotar, 19 November 2021

Rána po ránech

By samotar, 23 May 2021

Na dohled od bronzového jezdce

By samotar, 4 March 2021

Zarchivu: Hůlna-kejdže

By samotar, 7 September 2020

Center for Land Use Interpretation

By samotar, 18 June 2020

Dawn Chorus Day - zvuky za svítání

By samotar, 30 April 2020

Z archivu: Krzysztof Wodiczko v DOXU

By samotar, 26 March 2020

Pavel Ctibor: Sahat zakázáno

By samotar, 22 September 2019

Emmanuel Lévinas: HEIDEGGER, GAGARIN A MY

By samotar, 19 September 2019

Tajemství spolupráce: Miloš Šejn

By samotar, 27 June 2018

Skolt Sámi Path to Climate Change Resilience

By samotar, 10 December 2017

Ohlédnutí/Revisited Soundworm Gathering

By samotař, 9 October 2017

Kleté krajiny

By samotar, 7 October 2017

Kinterova Jednotka a postnatura

By samotař, 15 September 2017

Upsych316a Universal Psychiatric Church

By Samotar, 6 July 2017

Za teorií poznání (radostný nekrolog), Bohuslav Blažek

By miloš vojtěchovský, 9 April 2017

On the Transmutation of Species

By miloš vojtěchovský, 27 March 2017

CYBERPOSITIVE, Sadie Plant a Nick Land

By samotař, 2 March 2017

Ivan Illich: Ticho jako obecní statek

By samotař, 18 February 2017

Thomas Berry:Ekozoická éra

By samotař, 8 December 2016

Best a Basta době uhelné

By samotař, 31 October 2016

Hledání hlasu řeky Bíliny

By samotař, 23 September 2016

Bratrstvo

By samotař, 1 September 2016

Anima Mundi Revisited

By miloš vojtěchovský, 28 June 2016

Simon A. Levin: The Evolution of Ecology

By samotař, 21 June 2016

Jan Hloušek: Uranové město

By samotař, 31 May 2016

Manifest The Dark Mountain Project

By Samotar, 3 May 2016

Pokus o popis jednoho zápasu

By samotar, 29 April 2016

Nothing worse or better can happen

By Ewa Jacobsson, 5 April 2016

Jared Diamond - Easter's End

By , 21 February 2016

W. H. Auden: Journey to Iceland

By , 9 February 2016

Jussi Parikka: The Earth

By Slawomír Uher, 8 February 2016

Co číhá za humny? neboli revoluce přítomnosti

By Miloš Vojtěchovský, 31 January 2016

Red Sky: The Eschatology of Trans

By Miloš Vojtěchovský, 19 January 2016

Towards an Anti-atlas of Borders

By , 20 December 2015

Pavel Mrkus - KINESIS, instalace Nejsvětější Salvátor

By Miloš Vojtěchovský, 6 December 2015

Tváře/Faces bez hranic/Sans Frontiers

By Miloš Vojtěchovský, 29 November 2015

Na Zemi vzhůru nohama

By Alena Kotzmannová, 17 October 2015

Upside-down on Earth

By Alena Kotzmannová, 17 October 2015

Images from Finnmark (Living Through the Landscape)

By Nicholas Norton, 12 October 2015

Czech Radio on Frontiers of Solitude

By Samotar, 10 October 2015

Langewiese and Newt or walking to Dlouhá louka

By Michal Kindernay, 7 October 2015

Notice in the Norwegian newspaper „Altaposten“

By Nicholas Norton, 5 October 2015

Interview with Ivar Smedstad

By Nicholas Norton, 5 October 2015

Iceland Expedition, Part 2

By Julia Martin, 4 October 2015

Closing at the Osek Monastery

By Michal Kindernay, 3 October 2015

Iceland Expedition, Part 1

By Julia Martin, 3 October 2015

Finnmarka a kopce / The Hills of Finnmark

By Vladimír Merta, 2 October 2015

Workshop with Radek Mikuláš/Dílna s Radkem Mikulášem

By Samotářka Dagmar, 26 September 2015

Já, Doly, Dolly a zemský ráj

By Samotar, 23 September 2015

Up to the Ore Mountains

By Michal, Dagmar a Helena Samotáři , 22 September 2015

Václav Cílek and the Sacred Landscape

By Samotář Michal, 22 September 2015

Picnic at the Ledvice waste pond

By Samotar, 19 September 2015

Above Jezeří Castle

By Samotar, 19 September 2015

Cancerous Land, part 3

By Tamás Sajó, 18 September 2015

Ledvice coal preparation plant

By Dominik Žižka, 18 September 2015

pod hladinou

By Dominik Žižka, 18 September 2015

Cancerous Land, part 2

By Tamás Sajó, 17 September 2015

Cancerous Land, part 1

By Tamás Sajó, 16 September 2015

Offroad trip

By Dominik Žižka, 16 September 2015

Ekologické limity a nutnost jejich prolomení

By Miloš Vojtěchovský, 16 September 2015

Lignite Clouds Sound Workshop: Days I and II

By Samotar, 15 September 2015

Walk from Mariánské Radčice

By Michal Kindernay, 12 September 2015

Mariánské Radčice and Libkovice

By Samotar, 11 September 2015

Most - Lake, Fish, algae bloom

By Samotar, 8 September 2015

Monday: Bílina open pit excursion

By Samotar, 7 September 2015

Duchcov II. - past and tomorrow

By Samotar, 6 September 2015

Duchcov II.

By Samotar, 6 September 2015

Arrival at Duchcov I.

By Samotar, 6 September 2015

Czech Republic

Cancerous Land, part 3

Posted by
Tamás Sajó

3. Mariánské Radčice. The feast day

The pilgrimage church of Maria Ratschitz was first mentioned in the breve of 1289 of Pope Nicholas IV, where he allowed forty days of indulgence for the pilgrims coming here. The Cistercians of Ossegg enlarged it at the end of the 17th century, adjoining to it a monastery-size parish building for the numbers of pilgrims. The vault of its cloister are decorated by emblematic paintings representing the titles and epithets of the Virgin Mary listed in the Litany of Loreto. On its walls, scenes follow one another in a long line, each with a different miracle of Mary helping those in distress. Above the scenes there were once German-language descriptions, which have now been illegibly whitewashed.

After the expulsion of the Germans, the church and the parish were closed, and they started to decay. Only after 1989 were the expelled Germans given the opportunity to repair it at their own expense, like most of the monuments in the Sudetenland and Böhmerwald.

A curious small open-air museum is set up in front of the gate of the parish. With the gradual spread of surface mining, they collected here from the devastated area and the engulfed pilgrimage road the smaller church monuments, crucifixes, statues of St. John of Nepomuk and image columns, like the deer moving uphill from a flood. But they might not be saved. The boundary of mining is just a few hundred meters from the village, and it is rumored, that with the widening to be foreseen in the next months, Mariánské Radčice will also fall within the mining area. For the moment, nobody knows anything for sure, and the villagers apathetically face the eventuality of liquidation.

There is also an information board in front of the parish gate. Among all the information boards of the area, this is the only one which was written in two languages, Czech and German, and the only one referring to a “German-Czech history”. The board only says briefly, how great a value the underlying brown coal represents, and how beautifully they will rehabilitate the land after 2030, with the completion of surface mining. A two-hundred-meter deep lake will extend on the 930-hectare mining site, whose surroundings will serve the purpose of recreation and entertainment.

The patron feast of the church is 12 September, the name day of the Virgin Mary. On this day, a Mass is held in the church, which is completely filled. The faithful are nearly all Germans, who come home for this day from Germany, Austria, or even farther. The choir is German as well, just like the organist, who plays on the synthesizer brought with him, as the organ of the church has long since disappeared. The Mass is celebrated by two bishops, one from the local Czech diocese, the other from Germany. Both of them say a sermon, first in Czech, then in German.

The name day of Mary has been a feast in the Hapsburg Monarchy since 1683, when they repelled the Turks from Vienna on this day. It has always been considered a mainly German feast, therefore it is no wonder that the Czech bishop speaks instead of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, more honored in Czech and Slovak lands, whose feast will be three days later, on 15 September. He tells the Czech-speaking faithful, that as Mary took part in the suffering of Christ, so we should feel empathy for the suffering of thouse around as. The suffering of the sick. Of the refugees. And of the displaced.

Then the German bishop continues. He speaks of the suffering of the displaced, of the deportation, of the homesickness. And that in spite of everything, we must be able not only to feel the suffering of others, but, like today, also feast together with them. None of them mentions names of nations, but the handful of Czech and Germans who gathered here in the church, in the shadow of devastation, know well whom they refer to.