<translation>Litoměřice Museum showcases the destroyed churches of Northern Bohemia</translation>

Litoměřice - Today, the Regional Museum in Litoměřice opened an exhibition capturing dozens of destroyed churches in northern Bohemia. Religious buildings had to give way to mining and the communist regime. The exhibition has also attracted interest abroad and is expected to travel to Dresden, said Tomáš Hlaváček from the Society for the Renewal of Monuments in Úštěk.
    The exhibition maps the buildings destroyed between 1945 and 1989, with the association documenting the missing sacred monuments for several years. A total of 87 churches disappeared in the former North Bohemian Region. Visitors can see unique material about a late Gothic church that stood in the village of Rychnov at the top of the Czech Central Highlands and could be seen from tens of kilometers away. "The church secretary decided to clear the landscape in that region and remove the churches from villages as unnecessary buildings. Thus, this Gothic church, which was visible from afar, was blown up," Hlaváček told ČTK. Similar fates befell other dozens of buildings. Other sacred monuments had to make way for lignite mining, the construction of the Nechranice Reservoir, or the advance of the army.
    According to Hlaváček, the communist regime tested in northern Bohemia how the people would react when churches were gradually destroyed on a large scale. "Unfortunately, they reacted minimally or not at all, so between Úštěk and Děčín, in the area around Lovečkovice and Verneřice, there is a landscape without any churches because in the 1980s the church secretary managed to blow them up. In just a few years, eight churches," added Hlaváček.
    The exhibition is traveling around the Czech Republic and has also been on display at the Sudeten German Center in Munich. "Now discussions are underway for loans to Dresden and Bautzen," Hlaváček added. The exhibition will be on display at the regional museum in Litoměřice until May 24.