Church of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Dubí)

Church of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Dubí

The Church of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Czech: Kostel Neposkvrněného početí Panny Marie ) is the Roman Catholic parish church of Dubí (Eichwald). It was built from 1897 to 1906 according to plans by the Venetian architect Pietro Bigaglio and is a replica of the Madonna dell'Orto church in Venice . It is located on the road from Dubí to Zinnwald and is a listed building .

history

The church was financed by public collections, supplemented by donations from Carlos Maria Fürst von Clary and Aldringen (1844–1920) and his family. The construction was carried out in the style of Italian neo-Gothic, is considered the northernmost building of Venetian architecture and is therefore a monument of European importance. In order to increase the authenticity, building materials were even brought in from Italy. As early as 1889, Father Bigaglio presented the first designs for the front of the church, which were inspired by the Madonna dell'Orto church. Construction of the church began on June 28, 1897.

The construction of the building was carried out by the Teplitz contractor Heinrich Siegmund (1842–1901). The interior was designed by the Teplitz architect Max von Loos and the plasterer Josef Seiche. Various building elements from destroyed Venetian churches were used inside and outside the church. The church was consecrated on October 21, 1906 and has served ecclesiastical and cultural purposes ever since. Originally, a monastery with an open cloister was supposed to be attached to the church, but this was not done for financial reasons.

In the 1920s and 1939, renovations of the church had to be carried out because individual blocks of marble had crashed from the facade.

architecture

The church is a three-aisled basilica with a raised central nave and a tower in the style of a campanile on the side wall of the presbytery . The building was made of brick with marble details according to plans by Pietro Bigaglio , professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice . Numerous spolia from Venetian churches were used, the installation of which was supervised by Bigaglio, who was on site several times during the construction of the church.

The length of the church is 50 m and the width 17 m. The height of the main nave is 13.9 m and the width 7.2 m. The side aisles have a height of 8.0 m.

The west facade of the church consists of 55 strips of white and red marble blocks in order to emphasize the “Italian character” of the building. Here is the main entrance with the main portal, which is crowned by a magnificent pointed arch with Gothic ornamental shapes. A sculpture of a blessing Christ is arranged above the tympanum instead of a finial . A round tracery window (with fish bubbles , three-fold) emerges above it. The marble sculpture of Our Lady (carried by two floating angels) is inserted in the upper area of the main gable, which is finished at the top with a pointed arch frieze and rich sculptural quatrefoil ornament. Below is an early Christian relief with two birds. To the left and right and from the entrance portal there are two high Gothic pointed arched windows with rich tracery . Above these windows there is a frieze made of intricate arches and above it a gallery with a total of twelve apostles' statues in pointed arch niches. The corners of the central nave and the two side aisles and the top of the main gable are emphasized by five pinnacles . In the side walls of the main nave made of brick masonry there are semicircular windows with columns. An old ornate portal acquired from Prince Clary in Venice was built into the south side of the church. The church interior consists of the main nave with a polygonal end of the choir and two narrow side aisles, each separated from the central nave by five columns. With the exception of the choir, the main nave of the church is closed off by a coffered ceiling with various tracery ornaments, the 42 coffers of which were made by the wood sculptor A. Dibony from Graz . The coffers, which are in the typical Gothic colors of vermilion, cobalt blue and gold, form the decoration of the ceiling. The ceiling of the choir (presbytery) is formed by a ribbed vault with a star top.

Furnishing

The interior of the church dates from around 1900. The main marble altar, in the Venetian Gothic style, is dominated by the Madonna with the baby Jesus above the tabernacle and the crucifixion group above . On the sides of the main group there are statues of individual saints. The upper end is formed by pinnacles with half-figures of praying angels. The altar table is supported by a column balustrade made of red marble. The pulpit is made of white marble and rests on six pillars, it is provided with a marble staircase. The upper part of the side walls of the nave is decorated with six marble figures of saints placed on consoles. In the right aisle there is a reused back wall of an old Gothic altar, on which seven painted figures of saints are depicted on a punched gold background. In front of the altar is a carved wooden figure of St. Francis of Assisi , the work of the Alpine sculptor J. Rainer. Two old Venetian marble reliefs with the Annunciation and the English greeting are set into the parapet wall of the organ choir . The organ with 32 registers and 13 auxiliary trains was installed in 1914 by the organ building company Heinrich Schiffner from Prague. The family crypt of the noble family von Clary-Aldringen and Ficquelmont is located in the crypt of the church .

Bell tower

The 33 m high open bell tower is designed as a free-standing campanile with an open bell chamber and a Venetian cornice , its pyramid roof is decorated with a Venetian double cross. In the upper part of the tower there is a bell by Rudolf Perner from Budweis from 1925. On the first floor of the tower there is a small cast-iron bell from 1919 with an illegible inscription.