Religious Practices As a Tool for Change in Rural Areas: The Case Study of Hořice Na Šumavě

The city of Hořice na Šumavě, in the Czech Republic, can be seen as material evidence of how religious practices can change cities and territories. With the present abstract, I would like to propose the research results of this city's case study and show how the importance of religious practices can change the landscape and the people living in a certain place. The little city of Hořice na Šumavě, an urban centre inhabited only by peasants and farmers in Bohemia, became suddenly famous in the second half of the XIX Century thanks to the discovery, by tourists and the general public, of its Passion Plays, a form of religious theatrical play dating back to the Middle Ages. The discovery of these Plays, in which the locals often played a role among the characters present in the performances, triggered a change in the city and its inhabitants: more and more visitors arrived, and even a dedicated theatre was built. The city’s fame will survive the terrible years of the first half of the XX Century and will remain famous. This was until the end of the Second World War and the establishment of a communist regime in Czechoslovakia: religion was forbidden by law and so Hořice had to change its economy: no more a tourist and religious centre, now the city will have to face a series of difficult changes, in many aspects of its life. This research will focus on how the discovery of certain religious practices (and, later, the obliteration of those same practices) has led to serious changes in the life, economy, and even physical structure of a once-quiet village in rural Bohemia between the end of the XIX century and today.