Sunlight warms the ochre-washed south west face of an ancient arch in Tábor, South Bohemia, Czechia. The arch spans Martínka Húsky, a cobbled alleyway leading from the south west corner of Žižkovo námestí, the large central square in the historic heart of Tábor.
Tábor, South Bohemia, Czechia: archway in town’s historic centre. The archway lies beside the tower of the impressive triple-gabled Old Town Hall, built in Late Gothic style in the late-1400s and early-1500s. The Old Town Hall today houses the Husitské muzeum, dedicated to the followers of Czech theologian and preacher Jan Hus (1369-1416). Jan Hus was a religious reformer who was martyred in 1416. Huss’s followers, known as Hussites, broke with Rome in using Czech liturgy and administering Holy Communion, both bread and wine, to the laity. The Hussites included a radical party whose main centre was at Usti, a small town to which they gave the name of the mountain where Christ was transfigured, Tabor. In 1420, the leader of the ‘Taborites’, Jan Žižka of Trocnov, founded the present Tábor, 4 km (2 1/2 miles) to the north of the former Tábor. The main square in Tábor is named after Jan Žižka. The Taborite movement died out in the 1430s, but the town which Žižka had founded lived on as a royal town after 1437. The castle was later converted into a brewery. The populations of both Bohemia and Moravia remained majority Hussite until the 1620s, but despite the Protestant Reformation initiated by the German priest and theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546), the Hussite Movement was effectively ended by the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague in 1620. This catastrophic Protestant defeat, early in the Thirty Years’ War, halted the Bohemian Revolt and ensured Roman Catholic Hapsburg control of the Hussite lands for the next 300 years. Tábor lies 88 km (55 miles) south of Prague. It has numerous Renaissance buildings and associations with the Hussite Christian movement.
Size: 2042px × 2995px
Location: Martínka Húsky, Tábor, South Bohemia, Czechia
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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