Overview

A forest can resemble the sea. It is vast and shapeless, with tree tops swaying in the wind like water. The landscape of our country, which is far from the sea, has always been naturally forested, and people had to take arable land and land for their dwellings from nature. They took it from the forest. People in earlier times were surrounded by forest to an extent that we no longer understand. They feared it, used it, and populated it with various creatures. That is why the forest has had its own artistic symbol since ancient times—on Gothic buildings, we find a stone sculpture symbolizing the forest: the demonic figure of the Green Man. From the forest, one can only see half of it, because the other half is underground. What is the history of the forest in the development of the landscape over time? The main guide of the program is Václav Cílek, followed by botanist Ivan Větvička and ecologist Jaromír Bláha.