Where to go between treatments? How about to Mlčačky near Provodovo

The Mlčačky rock formation is located approximately twelve kilometres from Luhačovice. Less fit walkers do not have to walk the whole route from the spa town, they can approach the destination by car or bus to Provodovo, from where it is a stone's throw to Mlčačky. From the Maleniska pilgrimage area there is even a route called NS Pod Starým Světlovem leading to the "rock village".

The unusual rock grouping is about 50 metres long, the spur is dotted with many boulders, rocks and several larger formations. The largest one - the Silence itself - reaches a height of eight metres at nearly 20 metres. At the lower end, near the confluence, there is a bizarre rock in the shape of a typical pulpit. The rocks have the character of the Lačnovské rocks and their yellow to ochre walls are perforated by a large number of shallow and deeper spherical holes.

The unusual name of the rocks can be attributed to the invasion of Slovak rebels - the Kurucs - into East Moravia at the beginning of the 18th century. These rebels were notorious for their cruelty, murder and rape, and above all for sparing no one. Everything they could take, they took back to Hungary, what they could not, they burned. No wonder, then, that the inhabitants of the area they invaded preferred to leave their villages and, if they could not find protection behind the walls of the several castles that stood there, they hid themselves and their meager possessions in the deep woods.

In early November 1704, a tall column of smoke appeared over Petrůvka, a village standing on a hill, telling the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements that the raiders were already here. Among the few stragglers was the parish priest of Pozlovice, Jan Václav Mlček. Together with the remaining believers, he quickly grabbed valuable religious objects from the church and set off for the castle of Starý Světlov. But it was already completely overcrowded with the escaped villagers, so they had no choice but to continue on.

They eventually found refuge in a wooded valley at a point where a rocky promontory rose above the confluence of two streams. Opposite the rocks the people had built simple huts against the weather, and but for the parson they would have lived like the wild beasts of the forest. But he lifted their spirits in times of harshness by constant encouragement, and even preached and celebrated mass from one of the rocks.

When the Curonians withdrew from Pozlovice, the original inhabitants found the village and parsonage burned, but the parson himself did not return with them. He was worried that the Curé would continue to search for him because of the golden objects from the church that he had taken with him... and he became seriously ill. During the winter, he hid in the nearby secluded village of Pradliska, where he secretly celebrated mass in Máčal's barn, but in the spring of the following year he succumbed to his illness at the age of 46.

The people of Řetěchov, where the parish priest came from, gave him a large and glorious funeral, and his remains were placed in the Pozlovice church. The rocks where the parish priest and his companions hid in the forest were then called Mlčačka or Mlčački by the locals...

Categories: Tourism, Tips for a trip, Luhačovice