We visited the “ghost church” in Luková five years ago and we were wondering whether it still stands since it seemed like it was ready to fall apart. And it seemed like the countryside around Žlutice was ready to be visited by our bikes.
The first surprise was visible already from far away – the church tower that was ready to fall down five years ago was shining with a new yellow coat and the clock was obviously repaired as well. And even though it was Saturday, there were people working on both the interior and the exterior of the church. Luckily, the most impressive features of this church – the ghosts – are still there. However, if you want to see them up close, you have to come only on Saturday between 1 and 4 pm. And only from May to October. Otherwise, you can only peek through the window. The ghosts were created in 2012 by art student Jakub Hadrava for his school thesis. He filled this Catholic church’s pews with ghostly figures, made from plaster casts of live models draped in white cloth.
And, unfortunately, some of the ghosts are already damaged. So, if you want to see them all, you have to come soon, they will not be replaced when the reconstruction will end. But we were lucky five years ago when we met one ghost alive!
But back to the ride. We started in the parking lot in Luková. If you are riding with our maps, you know that we are usually avoiding the regular roads. This time we spent more than half time on the asphalt roads and there was no piece of the trip which we would call questionable. However, we met only about five people on bikes or “koloběžky” even though it was Saturday and weather was nice. Traffic on these roads was very light as well. We were slowed down by a flat tire, but otherwise the ride was very pleasant.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/lunakesufa 39 km, 577 m elevation gain. To see these rides in context, check our interactive maps.