Skryje is a village in the Central Bohemian Region

Central Bohemian Region

Central Bohemian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the central part of its historical region of Bohemia. Its administrative center is placed in the Czech capital Prague , which lies in the center of the region...

 of the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. It lies upon the Berounka

Berounka

The Berounka is a river in the Czech Republic. It carries the name Mže from its source in Germany, next to the Czech border, until its confluence with the Radbuza in Pilsen...

 River, some to the west from the country capital Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

.

This little village became famous when French geologist Joachim Barrande

Joachim Barrande

Joachim Barrande was a French geologist and palaeontologist.Barrande was born at Saugues, Haute Loire, and educated in the École Polytechnique at Paris...

 discovered rich fossil deposits of Silurian

Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...

 fauna (namely trilobite

Trilobite

Trilobites are a well-known fossil group of extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period , and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before...

s) in the close surroundings of this village, when he was surveying the terrain for a horse-pulled railroad in 1840–1850. Today there's a small museum in the Municipal Office building showing some of his finds.