The pilgrimage site Homole in Rychnov is a national cultural monument

Lhoty u Potštejna - The Pilgrimage Site Homole in the Rychnov region, featuring a church and an impressive staircase, officially became a national cultural monument as of July 1. The earlier government decision to declare the site a national cultural monument has come into effect. Homole is now the 23rd national cultural monument in the Hradec Králové region. Eva Macková from the regional office of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) in Josefov informed ČTK today. The church belongs to the church community, while the municipalities of Borovnice and Lhoty u Potštejna share the cemetery by the church and the stone staircase.

The pilgrimage site at Homole was built between 1690 and 1696 by Countess Terezie Eleonora of Ugarte. The center of the complex is the Baroque Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is surrounded by a small cemetery, where two chapels were built in 1703. The church was designed as a simple single-nave structure with a gabled façade unusually oriented to the north, in order to dominate the surrounding open landscape. The site also includes a charnel house from 1778.

The stone for the 112-meter-long access staircase to the church comes from a nearby quarry in Hájek. The sculptural decoration was carried out somewhat later by the Hendrich family from Litomyšl. Although the sculptural decoration of the staircase has been damaged, it still retains its symbolism. Pilgrims prayed the rosary on their way up to the church, with the number of 153 steps corresponding to the individual Hail Mary prayers, and the 16 resting places corresponding to the number of Our Father prayers.

"This is an honor for this pilgrimage site, which is of great significance mainly for the Choceň area. The church is a landmark of the region, and the staircase also deserves attention," said Josef Socha, the General Vicar of the Hradec Králové diocese, to ČTK earlier. The municipalities hope that the inscription of Homole among the monuments will bring more tourist interest and that the dilapidated monument can be repaired. "We hope to secure funding for both the repair of the staircase and the boundary wall around the cemetery," said Soňa Rojková, the mayor of Borovnice.

Previously declared national cultural monuments in the Hradec Králové region include, for example, the Benedictine monastery in Broumov in the Náchod region, the Kost Castle in the Jičín region, the Babiččino Valley in Ratibořice in the Náchod region, the Baroque hospital Kuks in the Trutnov region, Probošt's mechanical nativity scene in Třebechovice, or the fortification system from the 1930s in Dobrošov in the Náchod region.