Králův stůl Memorial stone

Králův stůl is a sandstone rock formation in Chřiby, not far from Velehrad in the Uherské Hradiště district. The nearest village is Jankovice, about a kilometer away, and nearby stands the Nové Dvory hunting lodge. A road passes through this area from Modré to Zdounek, as well as the blue-marked section of the Cyrilometodějská trail.

The stone is made of coarse-grained sandstone, brownish to light grey in color, which is commonly found in Chřiby. It has approximately the shape of a rectangular block measuring about two point six by one point nine by one meter. It was artificially placed at its current location already in prehistoric times. Originally it consisted of three parts, a main section and two side pieces. The eastern part was broken up in the nineteenth century and used as gravel for road construction. The western fragment measures one hundred fifteen by sixty-five centimeters. The stone is carved into the form of a sacred animal, perhaps a bull's head or a horse's back. From the side it resembles an anvil. The amateur archaeologist Antonín Galatík considered the carved marks on it to be Celtic runes.

In the Middle Ages, the stone was a boundary marker for the lands of the Velehrad Cistercian monastery. It is first mentioned in a charter of King Přemysl Otakar the First from November twenty-seventh, twelve twenty-eight. In that charter, among the boundary points, it mentions a stone in the west, which is called Králův stůl. A report about a boundary inspection from sixteen ninety-four first mentions marks on its upper surface. It describes various letters and inscriptions, including the name JHS, and also figures similar to a bishop's crosier. As recently as October sixth, seventeen oh-six, a treaty concerning the boundary between the monastery and Jan of Rottalu, the owner of the Napajedly estate, was concluded directly on Králův stůl.

According to local legends, the stone served as a table at banquets of rulers, such as Přemysl Otakar the First, Charles the Fourth, or Matthias Corvinus. However, archaeologists have found no bones or pottery fragments. Researchers from the middle of the nineteenth century believed that Slavic tribal rulers were elected here, who took power by sitting on the stone.

The stone was first professionally surveyed and described by Josef Chodníček in nineteen oh-three. František Soják continued his work in nineteen sixty-four. According to him, the stone could have served to determine annual cycles or to track the sunrise and sunset of the sun. Some researchers see it as a megalithic dolmen that marked the solstices and equinoxes. The latest research by Jiří Pavelčík from nineteen ninety-seven did not confirm this assumption. However, it revealed that a circle of flaked stone ran around the stone. Roughly worked stones oriented to the four cardinal directions lay on its perimeter.