ARCHEOLOGICAL OPEN-AIR MUSEUM OF MODRÁ
Project LEADER + realized by the village of Modrá in 2003 with the financial support of the Ministry for Local Development of the Czech Republic.
Project LEADER CR realized by the village of Modrá in 2004 and 2005 with the financial support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.
The Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Modrá is set at the location of an original Great Moravian settlement in the nearby neighborhood of Velehrad, 7 km from Uherské Hradiště. It represents an ideal picture of a Slavic fortified settlement from the period of Great Moravia (the 9th century) and it is created by using houses with ground foundations based on actual archaeological finds. Above-ground buildings are hypothetical reconstructions; however, they are based on real findings. The museum – settlement - is divided into functional units and areas. The first one is represented by the entrance gate and the watch towers continuing with the Settlement and Farmstead, which change slowly into the Area of Power. The Religious Area is separated from the others. A visit to the museum is finished at the crafting area with an information center and its facilities.
The Archaeological Open-Air Museum will be located south of the border from The National Cultural Monument of Modrá (hereinafter only NCM Modrá), St. John's Church, at the end of the headland on the road from Staré Město to Velehrad, near the road turning to Modrá. For better orientation we can divide the museum into two basic sections. The first section will consist of a Great Moravian fortified settlement and the second section will consist of The Fishermen's Fort with accommodations. Both of them will be joined as one unit connected by an access road for the handicapped with the northern religious area consisting of NCM Modrá - St. John's Church. This will ensure a complex presentation of the whole locality. While the objects of the Great Moravian fortified settlement will be situated on the perimeter of the area in question - especially in its northern, western and south-western parts - the Fishermen's Fort with accommodations will lie in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the area. In the southern part there will be a parking area, an artificial lake and access to communications for cars, pedestrians and cyclotourists.
Old Slavic buildings will be situated in the northern and western part of the area in question. They will be divided into three basic thematic units which will be joined together and connected by walkways, so that visitors can go around the buildings as well as enter them. In the direction from east to south, or more precisely south-east, there will be 1. A Crafting Area 2. A Power Area 3. A Settlement and Farmstead Area. There will be also a Religious area and parts of the fortification and segments of the museum. The Settlement and Farmstead Area was designed by Mgr. Miroslav Vaškových, the head of Archaeological Department of the Museum of Moravian Slovakia in Uherské Hradiště. Other areas were designed by PhDr. Luděk Galuška, CSc., the head of Slovakian Archeology Department in the Archaeological Institute of the Moravian Museum in Brno. Both authors were trying to choose the buildings in the prospective areas to build hypothetical above-ground reconstructions of actual archaeologically discovered foundations in the localities of Middle Pomoraví. That is why they considered particular materials from Staré Město and Uherské Hradiště-Sady which complete the buildings uncovered directly in the locality of Díly near Boží syn in Modrá, i.e. directly at the location of the future open-air museum or in its nearest neighborhood. Individual descriptions of constructed buildings will also correspond to this fact. One part of the fortified settlement will also depict different parts of a fortification made of a double palisade rampart with a wall and a double-tower in the southern and south-eastern parts of the area, which will change slowly into a woven fence enclosing the whole settlement. There will be small fields and pens for animals at the western edge of the area, just behind the built-up settlement and farmstead area.
The museum will be entered via a fortified entrance between the towers. The trail will run along the palisade rampart and it will be also possible to climb on the wall. It will then continue to the Settlement and Farmstead Area and one branch will lead between the animals' pens and fields, while the other branch will turn against the hillside and will lead the visitor between two lines of houses towards the Power Area. The gap between the low symbolic palisades going around the whole area, which will also serve as an entrance, will also join both branches of the trail together. The visitors will then continue to a vast palace-like building, which they can go through, and continue either to the north to the area of NCM Modrá – St. John's Church – or they can visit the power buildings and enter directly into the Crafting Area. Also, visitors coming back from a visit of the Religious Area with NCM into museum area can enter this site. The trail will follow the production buildings in a half-crescent shape and will lead to the very eastern edge lying in the southern direction. It will then follow a small hill and lead to the entrance gate between the towers of palisade fencing.
Crafting Area
The Crafting Area will be situated in the north-eastern part of the area about 15 m to the east of the buildings of power, between the Fishermen's Fort and southern border of NCM. This location at the edge of the settlement is based on historical finds from e.g. Staré Město and also on the safety measurements, as there will be open fire used during presentations (experimental smelting of metals and firing of clayware).
The Crafting Area will be divided into two connected areas. In the first one you will find a metallurgical oven, an iron maker's oven and a potter's oven. Those will be at the very eastern edge of the area. They will be covered with a light roof so that they can be easily moved. In the second part of the crafting area you will find stable buildings – workshops, which were closely connected with the ovens mentioned earlier. There will be a smithy, an iron and jewel maker's workshop and a potter's workshop. There will also be one last building, the so-called joint workshop of bone, antler and wood processors, as well as clothing makers.
Power Area
The Power Area will be situated on the left, i.e. to the west of the Crafting Area, and it will be separated by a kind of entrance space or an entrance corridor for disabled people joining the open-air museum with the area of NCM Modrá, St. John's Church. The Settlement and Farmstead Area will join freely with the Power Area in the southern and south-western part (Settlement Area) and in the west (Farmstead Area). The location of the Area of Power is based on findings from a power area of the Great Moravian centre near Staré Město in the area "Na Dědině", where a cemetery can currently be found. A long stone and mortar building used to be the centre of the old-town area. It was connected with the religious building and surrounded by a farmstead and production buildings. The location of the Power Area will try to simulate this location within the area of the museum in Modrá.
Settlement – Farmstead Area
The Settlement – Farmstead area of the museum will be situated on the downhill slope going from north to south and it will join with the farmstead building of the Power Area separated by a symbolic palisade. It will end near the hill at the edge of the road. This area will contain residential houses, as well as some farmstead buildings joined in small purposeful groups. The residential houses will depict typical houses, under-ground houses and also half under-ground houses. As for the farmstead buildings, the visitor will see corn pits, storage wholes, pile dwellings, bakery houses, corn milling places and a well. Individual buildings will try to project the social position of their users (e.g. above-ground houses for the artisans and under-ground houses more likely for farmers). In the Settlement Area you will also find artifacts related to hunting (drying meat, fur coats) and fishing (fishing nets, a boat made of a hollowed trunk etc.) and small fields lying next to individual homesteads (there will be a possibility to process the crop during presentation days and illustrate corn pancakes baking etc). The pens for animals and poultry will be in the western part of the area. Altogether there will be about 13 buildings in the Settlement and Farmstead area.
Religious Area
This area hasn't been an immediate part of the planned Archaeological Open-Air Museum so far. However, in the future it will surely be connected with the first three areas. At the moment it is a place for the original finding of an early medieval church with a presentation board and about 15m-away from the building of a new church. This building represents a hypothetical rebuilding of an above-ground part of this archaeological finding with a church-like ground plan. At the moment there is only a small information board. However, in the future there should be a bigger table and texts on the presentation boards should be updated. Also the surroundings of the building and the original finding should be modified and the places with uncovered Great Moravian buildings should be sensibly marked.
Fishermen's Fort and its facilities
The Fishermen's Fort with its facilities will make an inseparable part of the Archaeological Open-Air Museum. They will be located especially in the southern and south-eastern part of the open-air museum. Their realization will be based completely on an idea of the submitter of the project. Nevertheless, the individual buildings should correspond at least partly with the architectural character of the historic buildings. This applies especially to residential log cabins, as the Fishermen's Fort itself cannot be so complicated. However, its placement must not impede the main view of the areas of the Archaeological Open-Air Museum.
Conclusion
After it is finished, the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of the Great Moravian fortified settlement in Middle Pomoraví will be a unique monument in our country. It will certainly become an important site imitating one of the most important chapters of our national history. Especially if the museum has its own day-to-day life, i.e. performances, educational programs, experimental metal smelting, pottery production, the growth of agricultural products, domestic animal breeding etc., and if it also continues archaeological research completing its presentation possibilities. The museum can be an invaluable instrument, especially in relation to children. The Archaeological Open-Air Museum in Modrá together with its neighboring major pilgrimage place in Velehrad can attract many visitors not only from our country, but also from abroad.
PhDr. Luděk Galuška, CSc.
Mgr. Miroslav Vaškových
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