Re: Stislava, Kostelec, Kr.Hradec
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In reply to:
Re: Stislava, Kostelec, Kr.Hradec
Mark Sabol 2/12/02
Dear Mark,
Kostelec does not stand for "Church", in the Czech language. It originated from the Latin "castellum", similarly as the Slovak “kas’tiel”, meaning a fort, fortress or, as we understand it today, a castle.Where the confusion arises is in the fact, that the Czech language has two words for the English “church”. Church as an organization (Church of Rome, for instance) is “cirkev” (pronounced “tseerkef”). In the old Slavonic a “cerekev” could mean also a place of a church building or such building itself, as it still does in the Russian and some other Slavonic languages. However, since the fall of the Great Moravian Empire and the ascendancy of Latin (over the Church Slavonic) in Bohemia, since the 10th century on, the Czech word for church as a building is “kostel”. This has a historic explanation in the fact, that the first non-monastic church buildings in Bohemia (since the late 9th century on) were founded and built, nearly exclusively, by the Bohemian* dukes and other lords, within their castles. Thus “castellum” became “kostel”, as a place of worship, while “kostelec” became a fortified place. Needless to say, that inside of every “kostelec” was a “kostel” too. Later on, when the church buildings were built outside of the castles, a kostel (church building) could be itself fortified, if it stud within a village or an unfortified town. Even today, such fortified church could be seen in Sedlc’any, for instance.
*I deliberately used “Bohemian” instead of “Czech”, because until the end of the 11th century, Czechs were only one of several West Slavic tribes, inhabiting Bohemia.
More Replies:
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Re: Stislava, Kostelec, Kr.Hradec
Thomas Brabec 2/15/02
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Re: Stislava, Kostelec, Kr.Hradec
Dr. Karel Slavicek 3/06/02
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Re: Stislava, Kostelec, Kr.Hradec