The Mystery Of The Forest Revealed?

No signs. No nothing. Just a guard dog.

In my last post, I wrote about a mysterious forest that Stewart and I rode into on our bikes.

Within the forest is a secret walled compound protected by at least one guard dog. There are no signs indicating what this place is. As I said, it feels like the kind of place where the CIA might take Al-Qaeda suspects for a little waterboarding.

I asked my friend, the Beer Philosopher, who lives in the village of Holubice, nearby, if he knew anything about the forest or the walled compound.

Here's what he wrote:

Yes, I know about it. I love it, I can see it from my "office" at home. :)

Its name is Erz, and together with another two around Tursko forms a kind of trinity of ancient sacred forests.

This one in particular seems to be the most sacred of all.

According to legends, Čestmír, an ancient Czech hero, was buried there after he died in battle against the Lučany that decided the war in favor of the Czechs. (That battle, by the way, was apparently fought in the meadow between Tursko and Kozinec, right behind my house.)

It is said that Čestmír was the Czech version of Tyr, the war god for the Germanic peoples (Vikings included), who, in turn, had a Roman counterpart, Mars, who was turned into St. Martin by the early church.

I heard that during the Cold War the Russians had an AA base hidden there to protect the airport. There are still some concrete buildings right in the middle of the forest.

The latest I've heard is that McDonald's was using them as a factory for ice cream cones (the ones made of biscuit), though I've never seen any signs proving it.

Anyway, it seems that there are security guards with dogs guarding the buildings. I've never been too far inside myself.

Whatever it is, it is a really cool place.


View Larger Map
The forest with the walled compound is just west of Tursko. You can see the forest in this Google map. You can even click to enlarge to get a bird's-eye view of what's inside the walled compound.