Christian monuments
Christianity came to Bohemia in the ninth century with the coming of Cyril and Methodius to the Great Moravia, and afterward the adoption of Christianity by Prince and his wife Ludmila. At that time, the sovereigns had the first churches built.
Gradually, the first orders came to Moravia and Bohemia, where the first monasteries were originated as cultural and educational centers.
The cult of worshipping 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 200 years in connection with reauthorization of the Catholic Church in the 18th century.
At that time, the country turned strictly Catholic. The Marian cult grew rapidly along with constructions of big public cathedrals, a variety of thanksgiving columns and pilgrimage places (more than 300 have been preserved) in 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 to the monuments by 40 years of the communist era. As a result of the ignorance of the regime, many sights decayed and some completely dilapidated into ruins. With no regard to their cultural value, religious sights were changed to military or farm storehouses. Monuments in the closed border zones were simply sentenced to gradual destruction. A lot of churches and chapels were demolished because of water-dam construction or mining. A number of monasteries were rebuilt into administrative or other buildings and their unique libraries were just discarded.
Today, many sights have been restored to their original splendor the tradition of Marian pilgrimages has also been revived. The most significant and historically most famous religious monuments have been included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites (Kutná Hora, the historic center of Prague, the gardens of Kroměříž, Zelená Hora).