Modrá u Velehradu, Uherské Hradiště District, Zlín Region

The remains of the first-ever discovered church from the Great Moravian period are located in the cadastral area of Modrá near Velehrad. The church was discovered by Jan Nevěřil in 1911, but it was not officially recognised by the scholarly community until the 1950s, following a revision excavation conducted by Vilém Hrubý. The church, which was likely dedicated to St John the Baptist, was built by Western clergy. The early dating of the structure to the late 8th or early 9th century is supported by the grave goods found in several surrounding burials and the architecture of the church itself. The building features a single-nave layout with an elongated rectangular chancel. More than 30 graves were found around the church, some of which contained items of Carolingian and Late Avar origin. Approximately 50 m southeast of the church (outside the site plan), a group of graves was discovered, including one burial of a higher-ranking individual, who was buried with ceramic vessels, which can be seen as surviving evidence of paganism. These vessels may have contained (or symbolised) actual food, intended for the deceased to consume in the afterlife, a practice that contradicts Christian doctrine. The Modrá site thus offers insight into the early stages of Christianisation, when both the ideas of the new faith and the customs of waning paganism coexisted. Paganism persisted in Moravia for nearly 300 years, from the arrival of the Slavs in the 6th century until the late 8th century.

In addition to the original church’s foundations, a hypothetical reconstruction of the church was built in close proximity. Nearby, at the site of a former early medieval settlement, an archaeological open-air museum, “The Great Moravian Fortified Settlement of Central Pomoraví,” was later established.
Another notable feature is the proximity of a stone known as Králův stůl (“King’s Table”), located 3.5 km north of Modrá, near the road to Zdounky (see navigation point). The stone is linked to various local legends, and was mentioned in a 1228 charter by Přemysl Otakar I, marking the boundary of the Velehrad monastery’s estates. In 1996–1997, geomagnetic surveys and subsequent excavations were carried out around the stone. These investigations confirmed that the stone originally stood at the centre of a circle of smaller stones, and the entire structure predates the La Tène period. The only ceramic sherd found during the excavation dates to the Late Bronze Age.

References: Cibulka 1958; Galuška 2005a; Galuška 2005b; Galuška 2012; Galuška et al. 2023; Galuška – Šmerda 2010; Galuška – Vaškových 2006; Hrubý et al. 1955; Pavelčík 1996; Pavelčík 1997.

Web: https://www.slovackemuzeum.cz/modra-na-dile

Navigation points: N 49°6’14.52“, E 17°24’24.01“ (church foundation); N 49°8’30.56“, E 17°23’25.20“ (Králův stůl).