Corpus Christi Church (Guty)

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Corpus Christi Church in Guty, 2013
Fire site, August 2017

The Church of Corpus Christi in Guty , now part of Trinec in the Czech Republic , was a later than 1563 built grist wooden church at the Duchy Cieszyn . It was initially a Lutheran and since 1654 a Roman Catholic Church. Because of its age and because of the largely originally preserved building structure, it was considered one of the most historically important wooden churches in the Czech Republic.

The church with all its art treasures, some from the second half of the 16th century, was completely destroyed by fire on the night of August 1st, 2017.

history

Door to the sacristy with the year "1563", around 1927
Corpus Christi church during renovation, 2011

A carving above the door to the sacristy indicated that it was built in 1563, but it cannot be ruled out that the building was much older. The oldest bell in the church was cast in 1565 and has been preserved. At that time the Guty region was dominated by Lutherans. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Silesia was re-Catholicized . In 1653 the re-Catholicization of the Duchy of Teschen began after it fell back to the Bohemian Crown. In the following year, 27 Protestant churches in the duchy had become Catholic. The Corpus Christi Church, which was handed over to the Catholics on March 23, 1654, also belonged to them. The Protestants were subject to persecution at the time and were expelled in large numbers or forced to convert to the Catholic faith.

A church inventory from 1804 indicates that the Corpus Christi Church was dedicated and consecrated to the body of Christ on January 8, 1661 by the Krakow Auxiliary Bishop Mikołaj Oborski . In 1679 the Corpus Christi Church is mentioned for the first time in a document that has been handed down. Its patronage of the Holy Body of Christ was named in a visitation protocol and it was designated as a branch church of the parish of Střítež . It was also stated that the church and the altar did not appear to be consecrated, and that an unconsecrated stone was used as the altar. The apparent contradiction in the information on the consecration of the church is explained by the fact that in 1665 the pastorate in Střítež was filled. The new pastor may not have been informed of the ordination prior to his term of office.

After the Tolerance Patent of 1781 came into force , the vast majority of the region's citizens turned away from the Catholic Church. However, the church remained Catholic and was ultimately a branch church of the parish of Ropice and Střítež. On June 7, 1863, the congregation celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Corpus Christi Church. The church was thoroughly renovated for the occasion, and the Austrian Archduke Albrecht von Österreich-Teschen contributed significantly to covering the costs . The adjoining cemetery was used for burials by Catholics and Protestants until 1882.

The Silesian wooden churches in almost every village were lost in large numbers in the 19th century. It was not just the susceptibility of the wood and poor maintenance that played a role. The population increasingly saw the wooden churches as a temporary solution and preferred representative stone buildings. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Corpus Christi Church was also threatened with destruction. A deceased parish priest had bequeathed 4,000 crowns in his will for the construction of a new church to replace the Corpus Christi church. It is unclear why the construction project was not carried out.

The Corpus Christi Church was the oldest surviving scrap wood church in the Czech part of the former Duchy of Teschen . The fact that it remained undestroyed for centuries and that a large part of the original building fabric from the 16th century was preserved is attributed to the very small number of Catholic believers in Guty. In 1801 only two Catholics lived in Guty; in 1867 there were 5 Catholics against 769 Protestants. On May 3, 1958, the Corpus Christi Church was entered on the list of Czech cultural monuments with the registration number 46321 / 8-659.

In 2001 the bell from 1565 was stolen. The theft sparked a wave of indignation among the local population. Finally the bell was discovered in a ditch in Karpentná , another part of Třinec just a few kilometers away. The clapper was no longer there and the perpetrators were never identified.

Between 2011 and 2012 the Corpus Christi Church was restored for 4.3 million Czech crowns . Most of the funds came from a support program of the European Union for the Moravian-Silesian region , with a smaller part from the city of Třinec and private donors. During the restoration, the roof and load-bearing parts of the tower construction were replaced. The tower was dismantled and rebuilt in the course of the work.

architecture

Covered all-round corridor, around 1927
View of the tower before the renovation, 2008

The Corpus Christi Church was a typical example of the formerly numerous scrap wood churches in Silesia. It was very similar to other wooden churches in the region that were preserved in their original state. These included the steep deep-reaching and covered with wooden shingles gable roof and the outside around the entire nave and the choir around leading wooden covered gallery, which in Czech as Sobota and in Polish as Soboty is called. Both the shape of the roof and the covered gallery served primarily to protect the building from wind and moisture. In addition, the galleries were used as a veranda and, if necessary, offered visitors to church services and other events protection from the weather. Compared to the other surviving wooden churches, some of which were only built in the 18th century, the Corpus Christi Church, built in 1563 at the latest, is distinguished by its great age. A special feature of the Corpus Christi Church were the unusually strong load-bearing beams, with a thickness of up to 60 centimeters.

The bell tower was a wooden structure that had the shape of a truncated pyramid at the base . On the ground floor it formed an open hall as an anteroom to the nave , the main entrance of which was accessible through the tower. Above the entrance hall was the belfry paneled with decorative panels . The tower hood no longer had its original shape, but was replaced by a baroque onion hood in September 1781 . In that year the bell tower, which had been free-standing until then, was connected to the nave.

The Corpus Christi church had three bells. The already mentioned oldest bell from 1565 bore the Latin inscription Verbum Domini manet in aeternum (German: word of the Lord remains in eternity) and the letters "MS" in addition to the year 1565. The largest bell was from 1819 and had a partially removed Polish one Inscription, the little bell was cast in 1812.

The central part of the building was followed by the bell tower, the nave, with a rectangular floor plan and a flat ceiling boarded with wooden boards inside. The organ loft in the nave was continued on the left wall to create additional space for visitors. The year 1626 is given for the construction of the organ gallery. The parapets of the gallery were decorated with ornamental paintings reminiscent of the folk art of the Gorals . They could be dated to 1642 by an inscription and ascribed to Stephan Sowa von Nieborow (Szczepan Sowa z Nieborowa) . They were considered the oldest surviving evidence of Silesian decorative painting.

The choir had a slightly lower roof ridge so that the inner structure of the building was already recognizable from the outside. The ceiling of the choir was also clad with wood, but in contrast to the nave, it simulated a barrel vault . With this design, the Corpus Christi Church was unique in the Czech Republic, other scrap wood churches only had horizontal ceilings in the choir. The floor of the choir was raised by one step opposite the nave.

The Corpus Christi church received a new brick floor in 1863 and a retaining wall was built because the wall with the main altar had become rotten and the statics of the building were endangered. Another major repair took place in 1877 when the roof and tower were renovated and the pews in the nave were replaced. On this occasion, a document was also found left in the dome of the tower, from which the work carried out in 1781 emerged.

The year “1563” on a bar on the lintel of the door to the sacristy was the earliest evidence of the existence of the church at that time. It has repeatedly been questioned that the inscription actually dates from 1563. However, the information is based on the dating of one of the three church bells to the year 1565. For a dendrochronological study carried out in August 2014 , samples were taken from the wooden walls of the church and from the beams of the nave and pulpit. According to the study, the fir wood used to build the church was felled between 1560 and 1564.

Interior decoration

Interior of the church, around 1927

The high altar from 1591 was provided with a communion scene and was largely preserved in its original condition. In the nave there was a baroque side altar from 1741 with a picture of Maria Immaculata and numerous carvings. The holy figures on the side altar represented Dominica , the apostles Peter and Paul and Franz Xavier , the founder of the Jesuit mission. On one wall of the nave there was an epitaph from an unknown family in the Renaissance style . An inscription was no longer there; it might have been removed at some point in time. The benches and capitals of the choir seem to have been part of the original inventory.

The interior walls of the church were decorated with works by local artists from the 17th and 18th centuries. This included two pictures painted on canvas and dated 1739. One represented the seven sacraments with numerous figures , the other the prophet Daniel as the dream interpreter of the Babylonian king. These and a few other images have been assigned to contemporary folk art because of their simple representation. There was a miraculous image on the high altar , the execution of which was reminiscent of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa . On the side walls of the nave hung two older paintings, an exhibition of the Lord and a Mater dolorosa . Some of the paintings were used by the Jesuits who lived in Teschen as diagrams during the mission to convey the secrets of faith visually.

Arson

The burned down Corpus Christi Church, August 2017

On the night of August 1 to August 2, 2017, the church burned down completely. The fire alarm was triggered at 00:06. The late triggering of the fire alarm indicates that the fire started outside the church. With the building, the fire also destroyed the historic interior and paintings from the late 16th century. The lost cultural asset is considered irreplaceable.

A can of fire accelerator was found near the burned down church . In connection with the fire, three suspects were arrested on August 2, 2017. The two adults and a teenager are charged with willful arson. For one of the adults and the young person, the public prosecutor applied to the responsible district court for pre- trial detention due to the expected imprisonment of eight to 15 years . The third accused's contribution to the crime is less serious. The motives of the alleged perpetrators are not clear.

On the morning of August 6, 2017, an open-air service took place at the site of the fire in front of a largely intact wooden cross that was directly in front of the church. The diocese of Ostrau-Troppau is trying to find storage rooms to accommodate the wooden beams that may be used for the reconstruction of the Corpus Christi Church.

The mayor of Třinec was stunned after the fire and the news of the arson. She suggested a benefit concert and a public collection for the reconstruction of the church. The costs of a possible reconstruction are largely covered by the insurance.

gallery

  • Corpus Christi Church in Guty, view from the southeast, 2015

  • Circumferential covered corridor, 2007

  • View of the tower from the north, with the crucifix in front of the church, 2013

  • Detail view of the roof shingles during the renovation, 2011

  • Historical recordings, around 1927

  • View from the southeast

  • View from the southwest

  • Side entrance

See also

Web links

Commons : Corpus Christi Church (Guty)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Veronika Lachová: Gotická a renesanční architektura okresu Frýdek-Místek (1230-1620), pp. 88–89.
  2. ↑ a b Stanislav Janalík: V Trinci Shorel kostel z 16 století. Historická škoda je nevyčíslitelná, příčina není zatím známá , iRozhlas , August 2, 2017, accessed on August 7, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b Veronika Lachová: Gotická a renesanční architektura okresu Frýdek-Místek (1230-1620), pp. 17-18.
  4. ↑ a b c d Józef Londzin: Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , pp. 92–93.
  5. ↑ Józef Londzin: kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , S. 94th
  6. ↑ a b c d e Józef Londzin: Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , p. 95.
  7. ↑ Anonymous: Z Trzycieźa. In: Gwiazdka Cieszyńska 1863, No. 22, May 30, 1863, p. 176.
  8. ↑ a b without author: Kostel Božího Těla v Gutech, obec Třinec-Guty, farnost Střítež u Českého Těšína . Ostrava-Troppau diocese, accessed on August 7, 2017.
  9. ↑ Veronika Lachová: Gotická a renesanční architektura okresu Frýdek-Místek (1230-1620), pp. 37–38.
  10. ↑ a b c Veronika Lachová: Gotická a renesanční architektura okresu Frýdek-Místek (1230-1620), p. 89.
  11. ↑ a b c d David Pindur: Dřevěný kostel Všech svatých v Sedlištích. Obec Sedliště a Region Slezská brána, Sedliště 2013, ISBN 978-80-260-5172-5 , pp. 127–128, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.masslezskabrana.cz%2Fpublicdoc%2Fkniha-sedliste-210x210mm-web.pdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D .
  12. ↑ kostel Božího těla ÚSKP 46321 / 8-659 in the monument catalog pamatkovykatalog.cz (Czech).
  13. ↑ a b January Cieslar: Požár dřevěného kostela Božího těla v Gutech na Těšínsku . In: Národní památkový ústav , August 2, 2017, accessed on August 7, 2017.
  14. ↑ Józef Londzin: kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , p. 4
  15. ↑ a b c d e Fr. Rosmaël: The wooden church of St. Corporis Christi in Gutty, branch of the parish church in Trzycież, East Silesia. In: Communications from the KK Central Commission for Research and Conservation of Art and Historical Monuments 1899, Volume XXV, pp. 98–99, digitized version http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dbub_gb_j55ZAAAAYAAJ~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3Dn124~ double sided%3Dja~LT%3D~PUR%3D, accessed on August 9, 2017.
  16. ↑ a b c d Józef Londzin: Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , pp. 18-19.
  17. ↑ Józef Londzin: Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , p. 97.
  18. ↑ Józef Londzin: Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Cieszyńskim , p. 96.
  19. ↑ Pavel Siuda: Shorel dřevěný kostel Božího Tela v Gutech u Třince. Památka ze 16. století je zničena . Diocese of Ostrau-Troppau, August 2, 2017, accessed on August 7, 2017.
  20. ↑ a b c Josef Gabzdyl: Dvěma dospělým a mladistvému ​​hrozí za zkázu kostela až 15 let . iDNES.cz, August 4, 2017, accessed August 7, 2017.

Coordinates: 49 ° 39 ′ 45.7 "  N , 18 ° 35 ′ 57.8"  E