Stop Five –Paulaner Monastery, The Urban Dominant ENG

Looking northward, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary will certainly catch your eye. In the early 18th century, the church became part of the Paulaner monastery. The old masters knew very well how to embed it in the local landscape in such a manner that it would attract pilgrims from far and near. Although it was built in Radical Baroque style, its facade is modest and simple, waiting for pilgrims to enter and discover. 

The church’s tower is attached to the front from the east, since the Paulaner order is one of mendicant orders, i. e. orders living in poverty and avoiding property ownership, and two-tower front was not typical for them. The monastery consists of three one-storey buildings of the convent; together with the cloister they close around the paradise courtyard. The eastern part of the cloister is joined directly to the church.

The missing convent building on the eastern side was possibly the consequence of the intention to decrease construction costs of the building. The cloister used to connect the dormitory and other rooms with the paradise courtyard. Opposite the cloister, in the western wing of the convent, there is a barrel-vaulted triaxial wing stemming perpendicularly from the convent. The ground floor used to house the refectory (dining room) of the order. For nine years during the construction of the church, the refectory served even for masses. On the first floor, there was the order’s library – a typical part of Baroque monasteries. 

A remarkable feature is the elliptical plane of the church nave (five intersecting ellipses with the biggest central ellipse creating the special dimensions of the nave, so that it does not look like a mere rectangle).

Vertices of the other ellipses bear altars, so the nave bears three altars on the eastern side and three on the western side. The seventh altar is the main altar bearing the miraculous picture, located on the northern side. The eighth altar is the altar of the Rosary confraternity on the eastern wall – a signature of the local artistic Sucharda family. 

The nave is believed to have been constructed by Kryštof Dientzenhofer and its ornaments were created by the contemporary artistic masters: Josef Kramolín, Petr Brandl, G. Major, etc.

The church was built in place of the old chapel from 1414 where the miraculous picture of the Virgin Mary used to be worshipped. In an attempt to atone for the sins of the Thirty Years’ War, the owner of the local estate Rudolf Teuffenbach of Teuffenbach decided to build a new home for the Paulaners – a monasterial commandry, finding out about the legend of the miraculous picture of the Mother of God. He decided to buy a farming property in the nearby Choteč, where the Paulaners were temporarily accommodated until the monastery was finished in 1701. The year 1709 saw the foundation stone of the church laid – the nave was eventually consecrated in 1724. In 1785 the Josephine Reforms resulted in cancellation of the monastery. 

Descend to the former Rokytka valley to Gernata’s House, refresh yourselves in the Museum Café, and then ascend to the House of God.