The Cyril and Methodius Pilgrimage Route Šaštín – Svatý Antonínek – Velehrad
As of the year 2014, the Cyril and Methodius pilgrimage routes measure a total of 234 kilometres and pass through three Moravian and one Slovak region. That is because a new route sprung up alongside the pilgrimage route from Svatý Kopeček near Olomouc through Svatý Hostýn to Velehrad, this one leads to Velehrad from the Slovak Šaštín and from Blatnice pod Svatým Antonínkem. The trail leads from Šaštín to Kopčany, where you will find the oldest preserved building from the Great Moravian era, a small church devoted to St. Marguerite of Antioch, leading on through Petrov, Strážnice and Veselí nad Moravou to Blatnice. From there it is only 29 km to Velehrad, here pilgrims pass along the spa Ostrožská Nová Ves.
Blatnice pod Svatým Antonínkem is renowned thanks to wine-making (by the way, the mentor of nations, Jan Amos Komenský, also owned a wineyard in the wine region Plachty), as well as the pilgrimage chapel of St. Anthony of Padua on the Blatnická mountain over the village. The pilgrimage tradition, along with the beauty of the folk dress of the Slovácko region, inspired, among else, the painter Jožo Uprk, the author of the painting on the main altar in the church of St. Andrew in the centre of the village.
