Czechia

Currently, pilgrimage and pilgrimage tourism have literally become a phenomenon in Europe.
The Czech Republic, which is, according to the Kathpress agency, the third most atheist
country in the world after Japan and China takes part in this trend as well. However, the Czech
Republic is a country with a Christian cultural and religious tradition, to which not only
believers but also atheists and also the so-called “něcisté, i.e. somethingists”, people who
believe in the supernatural without belief in a specific god, refer to.
Historical overview
Although pilgrimage is documented in almost all cultures around the world and people have
travelled to sacred places since ancient times to pay homage to sacred objects, natural
formations, statues or images, in the territory of our state we mostly relate to places with a
Christian tradition. In the early Middle – Ages, the current Czech Republic was a Slavic
principality, taking over the Christian tradition of the princes of Great Moravia. This orientation
towards Eastern Christianity was later replaced by Irish missions, which reached Czech
territory via Germany (Sommer, Třeštík, Žemlička, 2009).