9 WEEKS OF BAROQUE FESTIVAL

Week 4 | Planá region / Tachov (20.7. - 26.7. 2015)

20.7. 2015 A jurney in search of life-giving water Planá
21.7. 2015 Loretan Chapel in Bor u Tachova open
22.7. 2015 Rediscovered landscape Výškovice
23.7. 2015 Museum Tachov
24.7. 2015 Church of St. Anne by Planá
25.7. 2015 Kladruby Monastery  
25.7. 2015 Church of Our Lady in Planá
26.7. 2015 Baroque Church in Brod nad Tichou

The area of Tachov resembles a vast castle park. Small groves and bosks alternate with areas of fields and, primarily, pastures. The events of history have left the landscape scarcely populated, hiding a nostalgic beauty. You will need intuition rather than sight to spot the elusive touches of the past. It is apparent, though, that the Baroque period was as prolific locally as in the central parts of Bohemia. 

In Tachov, the Baroque era left its mark with a Franciscan monastery and the preserved church of St Mary Magdalene. Its design as well as the rich and fine decor date back to the times after 1748 when a fire consumed a large part of the town. In 1751, an organ made by Vincenc Gartner, a famous organ maker from Tachov, was installed in the church. In Světce, on the edge of the town, the impressive ruins of the Baroque Church of Fourteen Holy Helpers stand preserved. A landscape with no pilgrimage site comes across as missing something. A site of that kind has a magnetism attracting and impelling you to focus your mind on the journey, and not just on its end, as is the case with the St Anne’s Church near Planá with its living tradition of pilgrim processions. We can, however, venture further, following the traces of our ancestors to Pístov, a Baroque place of pilgrimage, or to the spellbinding ruins of the Baroque Church of St John near Kočov. Today, the Baroque beauty of the church and the Loretan chapel with its arcades, frescoes and exquisite, already refurbished, furniture in Bor has also recovered. Baroque is a very powerful, prevailing theme in this landscape.