THE FIND
Two chests full of correspondence were discovered during the reconstruction of the former premises of the Ancient Unity’s at Karmel area in Mlada Boleslav in August 2006. Inside the chests were letters, registers, drafts and other documents which made an archive belonging to Matous Konecny, the bishop of the Unity of the Brethren. They were hidden just under the floor in the backfilling of the vault during the summer or autumn in 1620.
Six hundred various documents comprising the archive of Bishop Konecny have been of considerable importance not only for the possibility to examine the history of the whole church, but also for understanding the history of Bohemia before the Battle of White Mountain. These documents considerably increase our knowledge about the life of the Unity of the Brethren, its role in society before the Battle of White Mountain and also about the whole religious history of Bohemia and Moravia in the period between the reign of Rudolph II, the king and the Battle of White Mountain. This discovery is unique within the whole country. Perhaps it has never happened before that such an extensive set of documents, being hidden for four hundred years, has been discovered.
The entire find is stored and made available to researchers at the Museum of Mlada Boleslav.
