Mrákov: Holiday Apartments and Holiday Homes

Several notable reminders of the village’s history stand on the village square in Mrákov. The church dedicated to Saint Lawrence was built between 1811 and 1813 on the site of an earlier chapel. As a three-nave building with a prismatic tower on the façade, it shapes the historic appearance of the village.

Culture

The protected complex of the Church of Saint Lawrence includes not only the church building, but also a mortuary, the enclosing wall with two gates and a wicket gate, a cast-iron cross, and the associated plots of land. The Chapel of Saint Wenceslas, built in 1863, also stands in the centre of the village.

Mrákov was one of the eleven oldest Chod villages in the southwestern border region of Bohemia. In the past, the Chods of Mrákov performed guard duty to protect the country’s border and the trade routes to Domažlice. This historical heritage is also kept alive by the Chodský soubor Mrákov: The ensemble preserves and develops the folk heritage of the Chod region through the singing and dancing of Chod songs and by preserving the traditional costumes of the Lower Chod region. It was founded in 1961 by a group of folklore enthusiasts.

A regular event in the annual calendar is the festival Chodská hyjta. It takes place in Mrákov on the first Saturday after 10 August and brings together performances by participants from the Chod region and from abroad.

Historical features can also be found outside the village square. The farmstead at Starý Klíčov No. 80 preserves a residential building constructed using log construction techniques, which was built no later than the first half of the 19th century and is documented as already existing in 1838. It is considered one of the best-preserved examples of the development of the log house in the Chod region. Visits by Božena Němcová, Karel Havlíček, František Palacký and F. L. Rieger are attributed to the memorial house on Mrákov’s village square.

Nature

Lomeček, a former quarry, lies near Mrákov and serves as a natural outdoor swimming pool in summer and an ice-skating rink in winter. A special facility there is the underwater observation cabin: It is located at a depth of 8 metres and, through several circular windows, each half a metre in diameter, offers views of underwater life. With a guide, the cabin can be visited by a maximum of four people at a time.

Four landscape features classified as mountains are located in the vicinity of Mrákov: Spálený vrch, Čerchov, Dreiwappen and Schindelhöhe.

More places

In the wider regional area around Mrákov are the Church of Chammünster, also known as the Parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the Bayerwald-Tierpark Lohberg, a zoo and excursion destination.

Other places in the same higher-level area are Horní Kamenice, Dolní Kamenice, Nový Kramolín, Díly, Otov, Chodská Lhota, Neuměř, Mířkov.

For the higher-level travel overview: Domažlice District.