🥾 Expedition to the 1809 grave

The expedition starts at the church. During its repair, a broken marble step was found — cut lengthwise, it became two memorials. One stands a few paces from you: a white waymarker which, at the initiative of parish priest Ervin Jansa, points to the famous pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. You will meet the other half of the step in the forest.

🧭 Find the white waymarker by the church. How many kilometres is it from here to Santiago de Compostela?

✅ Correct — 3,155 km. Now for the other half of the step: take the road from the green towards the forest, direction Vrankovy logging track.

You are climbing an old road through the forest. In 1809 the country was full of French soldiers — a battle was fought near Znojmo in July, Brno was occupied, and supply parties rode the roads collecting food and hay from the villages. Neighbouring Lomnice counted its losses that year at 25,804 gulden: flour, grain, hay and beef. Marshal Davout's troops stayed there until November.

🧭 Task for kids: find a white pebble along the way — it will remind you why the new memorial is white. Carry it to the next stop.

✅ Continue along the Vrankovy track — the memorial stands by the path about 350 m before the Kozárov crossroads (49.4343313 N, 16.4694393 E).

You are here. The story goes that in 1809 the companion of a high-ranking French officer died at this spot, and the Holcner family of Kozárov was said to be paid to tend the grave. None of it is documented — but a stone with a cross did stand here until forestry machines destroyed it in the 1980s. Today a new white memorial stands here, made from the church's marble step; it will be consecrated on 5 September 2026. The exact site of the grave is known to no one.

🧭 What year is carved on the memorial?

✅ Correct. If you carried a white pebble, lay it by the memorial — that is what people have always done at wayside graves. Then continue to Kozárov.

The nearest homestead to the grave used to be here. The Holcners of Kozárov looked after the place for decades — and when the stone was destroyed in the 1980s, they filed a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator. Thanks to them, the place was not forgotten. Today, wayside memorials are kept by volunteers — like the Rašov chronicler.

🧭 A question for the way back: who will care for places like this fifty years from now?

✅ From Kozárov the road leads back to Rašov. The last stop awaits on the village green.

You have walked 5.2 km and the whole story: a church whose step became two memorials, a road once used by requisition wagons, a grave the sources are silent about, and a village that cared for it. You have tested the legend with your own feet — even the chronicler knows no more than you found out.