The painting that stopped the Swedes and the plague

In the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary a Marian painting hung from early times, to which the people of Budějovice returned whenever a hard hour fell on the town.

According to old tradition it reached Budějovice from a distant land at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Who brought it, exactly where it had travelled and whose hands carried it faded in folk telling. What remained was the main thing: the painting was in the church, lights burned before it, and people grew used to coming to it with their petitions.

They did not come only on feast days. They came when the town was gripped by fear.

Once the story was of war. The country around was unsafe and enemy troops were said to be near. The townspeople gathered before the image and asked for protection. According to the legend the danger turned aside — the Swedes did not take the town.

Another time it was plague. Again the painting stood at the centre of the town’s hope. And again the legend says the worst passed.

In the great fire of 1641 much of the historic core burned. The legend insists the image survived. Today a copy hangs on the altar; the original is kept elsewhere. What still holds is the role: one painting that ties together war, plague and fire in the town’s memory.