Apparitions in Modern Times

The nearby village of Suchý Důl is associated with dramatic events from the end of the previous century, known as the “Suchý Důl apparitions.” On 10 August 1892, fourteen-year-old Kristina Ringlová, who lived at no. 99 in Suchý Důl, reportedly had her first vision in the local forest. She claimed that a tall, slender figure in a black dress reaching the ground had appeared and greeted her three times: “God bless you.” Frightened, the girl ran home and told everyone. The apparition recurred two weeks later. News spread rapidly and many people came to witness her vision. A year after the first apparition, a large crowd gathered again, waiting for Kristina, to whom the Virgin Mary was expected to appear once more. The gendarmes arrested her, however, and the district governor ordered the crowd to disperse. The people refused and began pelting the governor with stones. The gendarmes had to break up the gathering. An investigation followed; the offenders were taken to Hradec Králové and sentenced to prison. Alongside the secular authorities, the diocesan consistory in Hradec investigated the case and declared it a delusion. Nevertheless, a Way of the Cross was erected around the forest in 1893, followed two years later by a chapel that still stands. Records state that on some days as many as 1,200 people came to Police. Church circles condemned the movement and even prohibited it. When the bans proved ineffective, the secular authorities and gendarmes intervened too. Thus, on the morning of 2 January 1895, when another thousand pilgrims prepared to leave for Suchý Důl, a bloody clash with the gendarmes took place in Police Square. Several pilgrims were arrested, the girl was taken to Broumov, and all were later tried in Hradec Králové. Kristina Ringlová had her last vision on 8 January 1895. According to her notes, the apparition recurred twenty-three times in just under three years. Seven thousand people attended the sixth vision, and around ten thousand attended each of the tenth and eleventh in January 1893. Kristina’s later life was troubled. She was imprisoned and contracted tuberculosis, yet lived to an advanced age and died in Hořice in the Podkrkonoší region in 1957. She is buried in the local cemetery.