Příbram's Svata Hora, the top for Czech pilgrims

The Czech Republic may be the most atheist country in the EU, but it still has plenty who do believe. And of those who do, Svata Hora is the most important place for pilgrims.

Many arrive by tour bus now, rather than walking or kneeling or even making their way up the remarkable 365-step indoor staircase from down in the town centre of Příbram. Some non-pilgrims do manage to make their way up on a folding bike, such as me, sustained on the steep climb to Svata Hora by the lure of Svata Hora Apartments, a beautiful, tranquil place to stay right on the site itself.

Svata Hora had a reputation as a place of miracles, which earned it a small chapel. But it attracted so many pilgrims also hoping to be healed, saved or bailed out that the Jesuits built the modern basilica, monastery and general complex in the 1630s.

It's a glorious set of buildings, and you get a real sense of arrival, especially if you've been puffing your way up from town on a laden bike. The sheer glory of the place must have had an overwhelming impression on the tired and desperate pilgrims of the 17th and 18th centuries.

There are countless frescoes, statues and illustrations of various Bible stories and miracles all round the inside courtyard. One shows the town of Příbram as it used to be in the early days of that chapel. The most unexpected part of the site is the grotto chapel for Mary Magdalene, done out like a limestone cave.

A highlight of the basilica is the altar with the Virgin Mary all made from silver - a product of Příbram's historic mines.

I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of Svata Hora, and celebrated by freewheeling down back into the town to enjoy a pint at the festival in the otherwise rather prosaic main square. (There's no surviving Old Town thanks to Communist town planning post-WWII.) Now all I had to do was get back up the hill...

@visitcz #visitcz #visitczechia @turisturaj #turisturaj #visitcentralbohemia #pilgrimages