Hrabová

We do not know a lot about a history of Hrabová, eventhough the first written record dates back to the year 1334. We can get more information about local life from the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) when cultural societies (reading clubs) started to appear and the activity of gymnastic organization Sokol came into being. It is necessary to remember an untiring activity of the Protestant vicar Rudolf Šedý who travelled to Hrabová from far away Svébohov. He supported the interest of the local people in education and he was inviting interesting guests from home and abroad. In Hrabová a number of Protestants gradually increased. So called “conversion movement“ after the establishing of Czechoslovakia played an important role in this connection. A congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) was founded in 1923. At the beginning the worship was held in a Sokol hall or at a school. A foundation stone of a church in Hrabová was laid on the 17^th of May 1925. The building was designed by architect Oldřich Liska. The church was built in a modern purist style emphasizing a worship part of the building as well as rooms for congregation activity including a flat for the minister. A room for worship is hidden in a lengthwise bulding with interesting windows. Before a construction of the church was finished (in the year 1933) the worship took place in a small hall. A side staircase with a niche for a scupture of a chalice and a tower with three bells are attached to the main building.

A unique building – probably the only one in the Czech Republic-got an astronomical cupola with a real astronomical telescope. Children who visited the church in Hrabová were especially fascinated by observing the surrounding landscape through the pieces of colour glass placed in the cupola of the astronomical observatory. Since the year 2003 the Protestant church in Hrabová has been listed as a cultural monument.