Near České Budějovice on the stream of the Malše River in the foothills of Novohradské Hory there is situated a significant pilgrimage place. In 1622 the Jesuits came here from Český Krumlov and in 1948 their intention to build a new Loreto chapel with ambits and the Way of the Cross was approved. The Way of the Cross is a grand landscape composition of twenty five Stations, depicting the suffering and the death of Jesus Christ. The raise of Římov pilgrimage place was conditioned by the need to replace the formerly popular pilgrimage place in Kájov. When the Germans began to settle down in Šumava, Kájov suddenly appeared to be surrounded by the German population and the Czechs ceased to visit it. The construction of the individual buildings according to the model of the Holly Mountains in the northern Italy and their frescoes and sculptures took over fifty years. Father on, the Jesuits had a small chateau built here as their residence and the Church of the Holy Ghost, roofed by a Baroque rotunda with an apse. In 1773 after the abolition of the Jesuit order, the Fund for Studies took over their property. In 1948 the congregation celebrated three hundred years of the origination of the Passion Way attended by the Prague archbishop Josef Beran. .
The oldest part of the pilgrimage complex – Santa Casa, rounded by an ambit with four chapels in the corners – was built in the 17th century. This simple building is a copy of the Italian Loreto chapel. Many Czech Renaissance members of the nobility used to visit The Italian Loreto and many of them initiated the construction of similar places in the Czech lands. There were about fifty Loreto objects built on the territory of Bohemia and Moravia, the Římov Loreto appeared as the sixth one and confirmed to the idea of simplicity and poverty of the legendary dwelling. It has got the same composition as all the holly houses, it is unique by the way of connecting the chapel with the ground ambits by an open arcade connection on the higher floors. The ambits, opened by the arcades, are richly decorated by paintings on the walls and the vault with the motives of the Virgin Mary’s and Jesus Christ’s life, love paintings and sculptures from several pilgrimage places of Bohemia, the view at the Římov complex before the final reconstruction and inscriptions of the donators´ names and dates. In the ambits there are placed four altars with paintings and sculptures of saints, four confessionals, and a chapel decorated as an artificial cave.
In the surrounding of Římov within about five kilometres there are spread beautiful Passion chapels, depicting Jesus Christ and his suffering on his way to crucifixion. They were constructed since about 1650. Twenty five Stations are placed in the chapels and decorated both with paintings and sculptures. The Římov complex shows the way the Baroque style domesticated in Bohemia and became folk art style. The chapels are located in the countryside according to the traditional Way of the Cross in Jerusalem.
