Abstract
The number of those who died on the distant battlefields of the First World War, which could not be transported to be buried in the homeland, led to the realization of monuments to the fallen in the towns and villages of the emerging Czechoslovak state. Monument creation was mainly realized in stone, but reverent realizations were created in other materials - bronze or other noble metals, stained glass or painting.
More than a hundred years after the end of the war, the actual creation of the monument became a source for Czech history of the 20th and 21st centuries. The fate of the monuments from their creation until the centenary celebrations of the Great War reflected the historical upheavals in the Czech and Czechoslovakian political scene, which had an impact on the population's approach to these sacred places.
The documentation of the fate of these places of worship brings interpretative perspectives not only on the monuments themselves, but also on the development of society in the Czech lands under the influence of significant historical events (the end of the Great War, the emergence of a new state and the influence of individual groups, the occupation and the establishment of the Protectorate, changes in the Czech borderland after the end of the 2 .world wars, the onset of a new totality, changes after November 1989, the centenary of the end of the Great War). The documentation, interpretation and presentation of the monuments and their destinies does not depend only on their field documentation and archival work, but also makes it possible to use the oral accounts of witnesses of recent decades for part of their history.