Rožmitál pod Třemšínem

We took a trip to this corner of the world. An interesting little town (Rožmitál pod Třemšínem), with a narrow square and a fancy (little) church in the middle, the town is old and medieval in origin at first sight but very very sleepy and quiet, even on a work day. We learned that the decaying chateau and a park, taking a large part of the town's area, belongs to archbishopric - it has so since 1620 except for the break during the communism and shortly after - to one of the most stable institutions in the state, probably the only one, but no one knows what is going on with it and people quietly live next to it. They store trash at the representative entrance to the chateau and ignore the fallen bridge to the main door. We were also wandering what it looks like inside and we learned that the furnishing and equipment was completely stolen away during a fire in 1930s... 

The gifted musician Jakub Jan Ryba, a teacher and composer, whose Christmas mass is still played today in all the churches during the holiday, lived there and died there at the turn of the 1800, fighting with prejudice and narrow minded neighbors and local officials, taking his own life in the adjacent forest refuge. In fact, he was found with his throat cut through and so it was assumed he committed a suicide and they repaid by burring his body at the unknown place at the cemetery. There is a stone mound at the place where he died and you can have a snack there at the table.

Other than that, people there are pious and well-read. There is a cross on every crossroad and pictures of Virgin Mary on ancient trees and there is a local library but no food store in the village called Voltuš (6,7,8). (I am being little sarcastic but I like to see these village libraries. Who knows what they really read there).

We went to Rožmitál to enjoy forests but they were far from the town.
I liked the trip. Despite of all the ambiguous feelings I was getting.