Zavlekov - Skránčice - monument to the poet Rudolf Mayer
The poet Mayer had a similar fate as Karel Hynek Mácha
Rudolf Mayer, a native of Nová Hospoda u Plánice, wrote his most famous poem shortly before his death. Her dark shadow followed him like poverty all his life. This is also confirmed by his diary, where he wrote the following: "My father died in the thirteenth year of my life, half a year later I moaned a lot, so my recovery was doubtful. The mother also died three years later.'
Rudolf Mayer was born on October 13, 1837 and, like the poet Emil Frída (Jaroslav Vrchlický), studied at the Klatovsk grammar school. Here he also found a good friend in the composer Ludevít Procházek. He also fell in love for the first time during his studies. However, his relationship with Emilia Wollner, who came from a richer bourgeois family, did not last long. Her parents married her to the hussar rhythmist Dembínský.
After graduating from high school in 1855, Rudolf Mayer wanted to study philosophy, but at the insistence of his influential uncle, he went to Vienna to study law. However, he did not stay long in the capital of the Habsburg monarchy, because patriotic pride and a desire for his native land won in his heart. That's why in 1857, after a holiday trip in Šumava, he went to Strakonice and later to Prague, where he met Jan Neruda. However, the development of his spiritual life was unfortunately balanced on the other hand by severe poverty, which only fueled his disease - tuberculosis. He managed to complete his studies with a doctorate, but it exhausted him so much that he never recovered from his poor health.
Rudolf Mayer was very interested in national awareness in Klatovy. He was in constant contact with the patriotic and progressive citizens of Klato. In his birthplace - Nové Hospoda, he urged citizens not to vote for German representatives of large estates.
Šumava, which enchanted him with its natural beauty and silence, played a large role in his poetic creation. For him, this landscape was a symbol of his native land. He combined motifs from Šumava in his poems with his pain, defiance of oppression and love and hatred. In 1861, he wrote a speech for the celebration of Karel Havlíček Borovský in Klatovy and a year later a verse speech for a large camp of the people at Rabí. These texts are imbued with patriotism, fighting determination, and thus are more of a historical document than poems.
Probably Mayer's most famous work is the poem V poledne, which was printed in the almanac Máj in 1862. Three years later, he died at his sister Matylda Holé's house in Loučimi, overcome by an insidious disease. His last look was towards the window, which allowed him a last view of the wooded mountain peaks of the beloved Šumava. Death overtook him when he was only 28 years old. He suffered a similar fate to other leading poets of ours - Karel Hynk Mácha and Jiří Wolker. The funeral took place in Loučy, where a large number of Czech patriots gathered. A. V. Šmilovský spoke over his coffin. The obituary printed in Národní liste was written by Jan Neruda, and in it he writes, for example, the following: "Mayer was one of the most gifted Czech writers I have known." The literary historian František Buriánek from Klato noted about him many years later: "Mayer is really not great because of his early death, with his pain, but his struggle with it, his struggle to make the life of man on this earth human!."
Author: Martin Kříž
Description of the monument:
The small, amateur modeled relief is placed on a massive block of gray granite, which is quarried in the immediate vicinity of Zavlekovo. On the extended part of the plinth, the inscription: "PILGRIMS, MEMORY OF THE FAMOUS MONUMENT OF THE POET / JUDRO RUDOLF MAYER / A NATIVE OF NOVÁ HOSPODA / VE SKRANČICÍ / 1837 1865" The ratio of the plinth and the relief is inappropriately chosen - the relief is too small. Signed at the bottom edge: "ULČ", on the lower old part of the relief, probably by Kovolijs: "KOLERUS KLATOVY".
History:
The author of the monument is Bohuslav Ulč, a model maker from Škodovka in Klatovy, from whom we only know the memorial plaque of Josef Klička in Klatovy.
Author of the text about the monument: Marcel Fišer, www.socharstvi.info