This paper examines the development of sacred structures in rural Czechia (former Czechoslovakia). Sacred structures could be associated with the creation of important symbols and distinctive rural regional identities in Czechia. Rural Czechia is not uniform: it represents several different rural landscapes. This paper considers whether sacred structures support the idea of multiple and fundamentally different rural areas existing in Czechia. In rural areas and small municipalities, sacred structures often present the only significant culture feature for a tourist. This research found that most residents of Czechia's rural areas identify with sacred structures, in spite of the fact that representatives of local government often perceive such items as cultural-historical symbols in the landscape rather than religious structures. Five types of rural, religious landscapes were identified, supporting the idea that multiple types of rural areas exist in Czechia.

The intent of this paper is to analyse trends and processes in the religious landscape in Czechia during the transformation period. In Czechia, society has been secularized to an extent unprecedented in the rest of Europe. The paper also uses the term sacralization of landscape, which is primarily connected with the restoration of sacred places. It has often been used in this context after 1989, creating a certain contradiction to the general trend of secularisation in Czech society and to the diversification, near disintegration, of religious communities. This research attempts to monitor the main reasons for the transformation of sacral objects as well as to seek fundamental consequences of these changes with the examples of select locations.

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The paper has attempted to generalize changes in the geographic distribution of religious heterogeneity or homogeneity in Czechia during the transformation period from 1991 to 2001. Areas with a higher degree of religious homogeneity exhibit smaller declines in the level of homogeneity when compared with regions with a higher level of religious heterogeneity, which also exhibit greater declines in homogeneity or greater increases in spatial religious heterogeneity. In this way, the regional differentiation of Czechia's religious landscape is becoming more pronounced.

This paper presents the funeral ceremony as one of the factors helping to preserve networks and relationships among families in the countryside. The development of family relationships in the countryside is discussed on the basis of an analysis of attendance at funeral ceremonies in model areas of the Czech countryside. The precise forms assumed by funeral ceremonies (church funeral vs. civil funeral, funeral without ceremony, attendance, associated traditions) differ in relation to culture on the state, regional and local levels as well. The differentiation to forms of funeral ceremony and burial processes depends on a number of factors, of which the main ones are religiosity rate and community size at regional level and tradition at local level. In the Czech regions, mainly in the countryside, the extraordinary attendance at funeral ceremonies is typical. Attendance at a funeral ceremony via a representative of the family is considered a social duty. This tradition of family get-togethers for funeral ceremonies has been maintained from generation to generation. Through it families that may now be scattered are able to keep together the network of relationships of inhabitants in countryside.