by
Robert J. Paulson

(Rothenbaum) 

Contributed by Vladimir Minarik

 

Nowadays, a practically defunct settlement lay west of Nyriska, about 1 km from the border with Germany and less than a mile north of the village of Fleka, which belonged to it. The settlement was established at the same time as a church and a parish around 1680 on the Kouthoe estate. According to the tradition, the allegedly healing spring was a red-painted tree with a carved Marian figure in the place where it was named. Above the spring, a pilgrimage chapel was built in 1834. The Red Wood remained a small settlement with only 12 houses, but it was a farce for the neighboring much larger villages of Liščí and Fleky.

 

After the war, the German population was displaced, and in the 1950s border bridges separated the church grounds, parish, cemetery and pilgrimage chapel from the desolate settlement. There was only one house left. The church with chapel and parish was looted after the war and in the late 1950s it was demolished. After 1990, the site was rebuilt, rebuilt the foundations of the church, erected a wooden cross and cleaned a cemetery where found tombs were found.