White Mountain as a Place of Remembrance

Emperor Ferdinand II’s Catholic troops won a crushing victory over the Protestants’ army at the battle of White Mountain (Bílá Hora), near Prague, on 8 November 1620. Shortly after that, White Mountain became a place of remembrance and a symbol of prevail for the Catholic Bohemians. Servite monastery and a church attached to it, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, were built on the battlefield, with support from the Emperor, which symbolised the victory of the Emperor’s troops and that of the Catholic Church. White Mountain was an important place for Protestants as well. For Protestant Bohemians, the defeat was the beginning of the end of their religious freedom. Their works keep quiet about the events leading to and succeeding the battle. However, their narratives about the events of their personal lives and sufferings did use the name of this symbolic place as a point of reference for a new time frame. For them, White Mountain was a place, a cause, and a take-off of losing their homes and properties, and those of their compelled escapes and exiles.

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