LOCAL LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN MARY

In 1805, Santon Hill above Tvarozná became a focal point of the Battle of the Three Emperors battlefield. It was the supporting base for the French army's left wing. A chapel used to stand on the crest of this hill, which sheltered a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary. The French artillery allegedly destroyed and removed this chapel prior to the battle, in order to make room for what was to come with the battle.

When fortifying the hill, the chapel was to be disassembled, and then used, in pieces, for French cannon trenches. On the eve before the battle, the chapel wood was used by the French artillery to maintain a fire around which the army could keep warm. The soldiers threw the wooden Virgin Mary statue into the fire, but miraculously, it would not burn. The wooden Virgin Mary statue, which was allegedly found completely unscathed in the charred remains of the chapel following the battle, forms the foundation of this legend. The statue was transported to a Tvarozná church. In the same century, it was supposedly sent to Austria to be restored, but it was never to return to Tvarozná. According to another version of this same legend, religious followers had the statue, which had been attacked by wood worms, restored in Tvarozná. However, it fell to pieces during the restoration. A new statue was created and has been in the chapel until present day.