Such an ordinary day in Litomysl
3 September 1640 was a Monday in Litomyšl, just like in Prague or anywhere else. It was such an ordinary day. You get up in the morning, you go to work and on the way you think about what the parish priest said in church yesterday. You may have seen the chateau's mistress, Frebonia Herula Eusebia of Pernstein, in the gardens after the service. She will be the one whose decision today will fundamentally change the future of the town. What she has been preparing for months, what she has dreamed of and what has cost her so much effort will become a reality. Right after breakfast she goes to her study, picks up her favourite pen, dips it in ink and signs the charter of the new school. The first of its kind in Bohemia. The last Protestants will become faithful Catholics and education will be available even to those who could only dream of it before. The Piarist order comes to Litomyšl and the history of education begins to be written according to their notes.
Kickstart your school
It was in honour of the Piarists that four years ago we decided to organise the first edition of the Kick Up Your School education festival on Castle Hill - a conference for teachers and principals of primary schools, but also for the general public. If a city of culture and education has such a beautiful music festival, it should also have something like an education festival, we thought. And who knows, maybe it was the Piarists who created the right musical breeding ground in Litomyšl, which later helped Litomyšl to grow into the magnificent festival that Smetana Litomyšl is. One of the specialties of the Piarists was music. Knowledge of playing a musical instrument was a major asset in the selection of new teachers. The Piarists made a lot of music, sang with the children in choirs and also performed theatre. In any case, their arrival was a real boost for Litomyšl.
Why should they invite the Piarists to DVTV?
The Piarists must have been a revelation in their time. Their educational system and methods, which also drew on Comenius, would today be described as innovative. And you might not even recognize today that some of their teaching methods are already 400 years old. For Litomyšl, the arrival of the Piarists was something like connecting to the internet via fibre optic cable. For example, the library alone, which has been preserved in remarkably good condition to this day and contains almost 9,000,000 volumes, must have been an incredible fountain of knowledge. When you start to find out what all the books contained and who taught at the school, you realise that it was not just an ordinary primary school, but that a small university was actually founded in Litomyšl. The Piarists were not only religious who dedicated their lives to the education of poor boys, but often among them were the top scientists of their time. Even Jan Evangelista Purkyně taught in Litomyšl. And it's quite funny why he left the order right afterwards. He was strongly influenced by the Enlightenment literature of German authors, such as Immanuel Kant. Under their influence, he decided to leave the Order to devote himself fully to science. And do you know where he got these revolutionary books? In the Piarist library in Litomyšl. It should be added that he never abandoned his teaching profession and taught alongside science. It would be interesting to find out which of these things supported him better at the time. The popularity of the Piarist school in Litomyšl grew rapidly and at the beginning of the 18th century it had up to 1200 pupils. Just for comparison, there are about 1,500 children under the age of 14 in Litomyšl today.
This year, DVTV, an internet television station, will again come to Litomyšl to film its interviews about education. We don't know yet who will be among the guests, but if we lived in the 18th century, they would certainly invite someone from the Piarists. But if you buy a ticket for Monday, February 24, 6 p.m. in the castle riding hall, you can be surprised with us.
