Yesterday, my girlfriend took me on a day trip to see a monument in a town called Slavkov, which is not far from Brno where we live.
If you aren’t familiar with the name Slavkov and you are interested in Napoleon and his famous battles, it will be better known to you as Austerlitz. That was the name it was given when the Czech lands were property of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
I’ve never stood on or near the sites of any great battles, people I know who have say that the places have an indescribable erieness about them. After yesterday, I’d have to say they’re right.
The monument is not to Napoleon or his exploits, but to all the victims, either side who fell in the battle. The monument has a chapel inside it with a tomb filled with bones found in archeological digs around the battle field. It not only housed the remains of soldiers, but also the remains of two women (most likely prostitutes) that were also found in the digs. One of those women is estimated to have had 15 children!
The monument is located on top of Prace Hill, which was the highest point on the battlefield and where Napoleon controlled the battle from.
It was a hazy day yesterday and as I looked across the farms that are the former battlefield I could almost imagine the haze as smoke in the aftermath of the battle.
It was a most different experience than I’ve ever had in my life. If you ever find yourself in this area of the Czech Republic, I’d certainly recomend a trip out to it.
I hear you…living here in Saratoga- I often ride the 10 mile trail at the Battlefield here in the summer…something about riding alone on a summer late afternoon thinking back to the battles that took place here and all the men who died really humbles you…
Sounds like an experience which certainly takes you back in time. When I lived in Virginia I loved beign surrounded by so many historic battlefields. I went camping at Gettysburg once when I was a kid in the Boy Scouts. Now that I know of all the ghost stories I’d love to go back and camp out again to see it they’re true. But like you said, it sure is eerie standing in the same spot where you’ve seen a picture of a dead soldier; his blood long since soaked into the ground. He had a history, a family perhaps who could never stand in the spot where he fell. Yet here I stand where he met his death. Very humbling indeed.
Everytime I go to Pearl Harbor I get the same feeling. I’ve been to Hawaii about 10 times and each time I stop in Oahu I head to the monument. It is a very humbling experience each and every time. I can almost see the Japanese Zeros flying down over the mountain range from the north and over the ocean from the south. What a terrible time for everyone who experienced the attack that day and for the country as a whole. It has always been a place of worship and honor to me for all who lost their lives while serving this great country of ours and for all others who served. God Bless them all.