Ratiboř, with the population of 1,739 people, is located in the Hostýn Hills near Vsetín (343 metres above sea level), on the confluence of the rivers Ratibořka and Vsetín Bečva and at the foot of Drastihlava Hill (695 m), right in the middle of a beautiful natural area (e. g. of the Zbrankova stráň national park with its rare plants). In 1306, Václav III signed the foundation charter of Charles Throne, a Cistercian monastery to be built in the place of nowadays Ratiboř. It did not happen, though, because Václav III was murdered in Olomouc in the same year.
The inhabitants of Ratiboř earned their living by working on their farms, weaving linen and making wooden tools. There was also a plant manufacturing bent-wood furniture and a wicker-peeling factory.
The people of Ratiboř were seriously affected by the Wallachian uprising (1777–1781) as well as by World War II when members of the Jan Žižka partisan group were hiding here. Memorials built after the war commemorate these difficult times. Today, Ratiboř is a prosperous village. It celebrated its 700th anniversary in 2006.
Ratiboř kept being Protestant even during the counter-Reformation period. Believers held their secret meetings in the fields and houses. One of the most remarkable people was Jan Maniš (1746–1781), a lay preacher, who brought banned books and read them to the local people owing to which he was persecuted and finally relegated to Hungary.
Protestant congregation of the Augsburg confession was established in 1782 and a toleration house of prayer was built in the same year, followed by a rectory and school. A new church, however, was not built until 1861. A Neo-Romanesque spacious church with a tower was constructed according to Ludwig Forster‘s architectural plan. Inside, behind the altar, there is a built-in stone in which banned books brought by Jan Maniš used to be hidden. His memorial is in Ratiboř, too.
In 1959 the original rectory was changed into a rest home for retired ministers. In 1949, a congregation house was built in Ratiboř according to Bohumil Bareš‘s architectural design. There is also a Protestant cemetery belonging to the building complex.