GOING TO THE ROOTS OF FAITH
Starting point: Olomouc
Olomouc, the chief urban monument reserve in Moravia, is, in terms of historical and cultural significance, the second most important town in the Czech Republic after Prague. Dating from the early Middle Ages, the complex of the former Přemyslid castle, the seat of the princes of Moravia and later of the church lords, bears witness to the ancient origin of Olomouc. Apart from St Wenceslas's Cathedral, an impressive collection of parish churches and churches attached to hospitals, as well as other ecclesiastical structures built by the religious orders existing here in the Middle Ages, have originated in the town over the course of many centuries. Baroque fountains and columns grace the two main squares of this grand university town, the seat of an archbishopric. The Holy Trinity Column, the largest group of Baroque statues concentrated in a single sculptural work to be seen in Central Europe and a triumphant celebration of the Catholic church and faith, was added in 2000 to the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage.

Svatý Kopeček (Holy Hill)
The local monumental Baroque Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary (with many chapels, residences, cloisters and a unique organ) is the dominant feature of the vast fertile Haná lowland. This lively pilgrimage site originated as a homage to a painting of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus. The child is depicted as it stretches out its hand for an apple from the forbidden tree of paradise, which lies in the mother's palm. In 1732 the painting was coronated and Moravia declared the Kingdom of the Virgin Mary. Several divine services are held here daily.

TIP: The museum of archiepiscopal coaches
A Baroque chateau surrounded by a park stands on a hilltop overlooking the village of Náměšť na Hané. The chateau boasts, apart from other relics, a collection of 18th to 20th-century coaches once used by the archbishops of Olomouc. Guided tours of the chateau are run during the summer season.

Opava
This historical location, the focal point of the Czech-Polish-German border area, is a pleasant university town and a showcase of remarkable monuments. The construction material (red bricks) of the local buildings, for example, the 13th-century Church of the Assumpion and the unique Chapel of the Holy Rood, testifies to the former influence of German architecture in Silesia. The chapel, also called Swedish (it was used by the Protestants as a house of prayer at a time when Swedish troops occupied the town during the Thirty Years' War), features a series of Gothic murals on a rather unusual theme - apocalyptic signs. The local Church of St Hedvika, built between 1933 - 1938 by L. Bauer as a memorial to the people killed during World War I, is an outstanding example of modern architecture.

Zlaté Hory
Levelled under the communist regime, this pilgrimage site consecrated to Our Lady the Helper has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. In 1990 a new foundation stone, sanctified by the Holy Father, was laid and a modern centre providing a venue for international meetings of mostly young believers from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany was built here.

Guty
For centuries the inhabitants of the beautiful but rather inhospitable Beskydy Mountains used to live in close harmony with nature. A wealth of distinctive wooden buildings has survived not only in the Rožnov pod Radhoštem open-air museum of rural architecture, but also in the picturesque landscape below the mountains. The finest example of the local wooden sacred architecture is the Renaissance Church of the Corpus Christi located in the village of Guty.