Hartmanice - Dobrá Voda – church of st. Vintières
Church of St. Vintière is probably the only one of this kind in the world. The church was built in 1706 on the site of a wooden chapel which, according to archaeological findings, stood there as early as the 11th century. During the existence of the military area, the church served as a warehouse. He was consecrated again in 1995, i.e. the year when 950 years had passed since Vintíř's death.
Life of St. Vintières
Saint Vintíř (about 955 - 1045)
Vintíř is actually the oldest known inhabitant of Šumava. Before he donned the monastic robes, he lived the life of a worldly magnate. He came from a powerful and wealthy family of counts from Schwarzburg - Käfernburg in Thuringia, where he was born around 955. He was a relative of King and later Emperor Henry II. and his sister Gisela, married to the Hungarian king Stephen I the Holy.
Allegedly, even in his youth he knew the language of his Slavic subjects intimately, which then came in handy in his later missionary and diplomatic activities. According to his biography, Vintíř was an extremely physically fit man who was exceptionally good at weapons and riding a horse.
Of decisive importance for Vintíř's life was the meeting with Gotthard, the abbot of the monastery in Niederaltaich, who worked there in the years 996 - 1022. At a mature age, in his more than fifty years, Vintíř decided to become a monk. He endowed the monasteries in Hersfeld and Göllingen with his estates and then went to follow Gotthard to the Benedictine abbey in Lower Bavaria's Niederaltaich on the left bank of the Danube, near today's Deggendorf. The monastery already had a rich history back then, as it was founded in 731.
After taking his religious vows, Vintíř did not dedicate his life only to monastic seclusion, prayers and contemplation in forest solitudes. Monk Günther undertook missionary journeys and participated actively in political life. In Bohemia, in addition to his missionary activity, he helped develop closer contacts between the Břevnov Monastery and Niederaltaich. This is evidenced, for example, by the election of Vintíř's former co-brother from Niederaltaich Menhart as abbot in Břevnov.
Important tasks were entrusted to Vintír in the field of high politics of the time in diplomatic negotiations between the Czech and German monarchs.
When Vintíř died on October 9, 1045, the Czech prince Břetislav I allowed the hermit's body to be transported to Břevnov, where it was buried in the monastery church.
Link:
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1126666764-toulava-kamera/7599-regiony/?r=520&o=522&strana=14
