www.skoky.eu/fotoalbum/virtualni-prohlidka/
History of the village Skoky (Jumps)
Skoky perhaps originated in the Middle Ages, but the first written mention of it is from 1513.
The beginnings of the pilgrimage place began in the High Baroque period at the peak of the Marian cult. At that time the village belonged to the parish in Žlutice. The local pastor, Premonstratensian Johann P. Rick, probably resented the fact that people from Skoky did not go to church because the way to Žlutice was long and uncomfortable in bad weather. Therefore, sometime in early 1717, after the Mass, Rick called 10 farmers and urged them to give 10 golden to build a chapel and make the bell for the chapel in Skoky, where they could pray together.
Only one of them obeyed, a pious peasant Lienert Adam, the father of 7 children. In a dream he saw the Virgin Mary, who reminded him of the promise given in Žlutice church.
Prayers and supplications to the Virgin Mary in the Skoky chapel were effective, especially for those who sought intercession for healing. Many miraculous healings stimulated the influx of hundreds and eventually thousands of pilgrims from far and wide, who came to Skoky.
The church is a Baroque building from the years 1736 to 1738.
The decline of the village Skoky began in 1945, when the German inhabitants were displaced. The second displacement came in the fifties, as new residents would not succumb to the pressures of the communist collectivization, and so they left and their properties were taken by the State. A third and final displacement came in the sixties, when the old and only road from Žlutice was severed by the new dam and left only a muddy dirt road on the other side of the plateau of the village Polom.
Today there is the church, a former pilgrimage inn, the cemetery and terraces on a slope. On the top of the towers of the church were stars. In 2006, church robbers attacked the copper plate, cut up the tower and they threw the stars to the ground. One of the thieves fell and so they were caught. Then there was another miracle, the young thief survived the deadly fall. Today, slowly but surely repairs are taking place, so maybe one day the stars on the tops of the towers will come again, and with them new life in this beautiful place.
