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Chysauster Ancient Village (meaning Sylvester's house) is a late Iron Age and Romano-British village of courtyard houses in Cornwall, which is currently in the care of English Heritage. The village included eight to ten houses, each with its own internal courtyard. To the south east is the remains of a fogou, an underground structure of uncertain function.
Chysauster village is believed to have been inhabited from about 100 BC until the 3rd century AD. It was primarily agricultural and unfortified and probably occupied by members of the Dumnonii tribe. The village consists of the remains of around 10 courtyard houses, each around 30 metres in diameter. Eight of the houses form two distinct rows, and each house had an open central courtyard surrounded by a number of thatched rooms. The houses have a similar layout. The buildings are oriented on an east-west axis, with the entrance facing east. The walls survive to heights of up to 3 metres. A field system in the vicinity attests to the site's farming connections.
To the south of the settlement is an underground passage of a type known locally as fogou (from the permanently lenited form of mogow, Cornish for cave). Fogous can be found in other places in the UK and Ireland, and are known more generally as souterrains; their purpose is unclear. The fogou at Chysauster was originally recorded as running well over 16 metres in length but was blocked up in the late 20th century for safety reasons.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.