Luková Ghost Church
By Polly Story-Lebl (US) and photo by Michal Lebl (CZ)
October seems like a good month to go really off the beaten path and see one of the most haunted places in Czech Republic (according to Facebook). We visited the “ghost church” in Luková (about a 2 hour drive from Prague) five years ago when the church was extremely dilapidated. And recently we decided to revisit and bike around the lovely forests surrounding the small village. Due to the roof about to fall in, the church was approached by an art student, Jakub Hadrava in 2012 for a project to finish his thesis. He filled this Catholic church’s pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth. The idea of the exhibit according to the local guide this past week was to show all of our past souls still attending church.
Thanks to the internet and social media the photographers and tourists have been visiting the church for the past 10 years for the experience and the bizarre scene. This allowed them to collect enough donations to really start repairing the church.
The village is not so easy to get to by public transit so its best by car. Maybe find a few friends with a car and take a road trip on a Saturday as they are only open to the public on Saturday between 1-4 pm. The forests around are sure to show the colorful leaves of autumn.
Beware of a possible ghost coming to life as we saw a few years ago! The actual proof and video footage is in the link below.
Activity Level: Easy walking from parking to the church.
