Kreuzherrenkirche (Prague)

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Saint Agnes gives Grand Master Nikolaus Puchner a model of the original church, altar of Grand Master Nikolaus Puchner, unknown artist, Prague around 1482
Kreuzherrenkirche
Characteristic green dome of the church. View from the Charles Bridge
Look into the dome

The Kreuzherrenkirche (also Church of St. Francis of Assisi or St. Francis Seraphinus Church; Czech Kostel svatého Františka z Assisi or Kostel sv. Františka Serafínského ) is a church building in the Czech capital Prague and belongs to the Prague Old Town . The church is located on the right bank of the Vltava on the east side of the Charles Bridge on Křižovnické náměstí ( Kreuzherrenplatz ).

Gothic building

The Prague Kreuzherrenkirche goes back to Saint Agnes of Bohemia . In 1252 she founded the Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star , for which she had a hospital with a Holy Spirit Church built at the bridge gate of the Judith Bridge . Her brother, the Bohemian King Wenceslaus I , entrusted the Lords of the Cross with the guarding and maintenance of the bridge in 1253 in return for the right to levy bridge and road tolls. These duties and privileges expired in the 14th century with the construction of the Charles Bridge (made of sandstone from the quarries of the Cross Lords near Hloubětín).

Today's Kreuzherrenkirche stands on the site of the Gothic complex, for which Agnes of Bohemia laid the foundation stone in 1252. The church, which was only 10 m long and - with side aisles - 12.5 m wide, had a five-sided end and was facing east with its presbytery . The southern side entrance of this original church has been preserved as a torso. The original shape of the church is preserved in the breviary of Grand Master Lev (1356) and on a procession monstrance by Grand Master Nikolaus Puchner .

Baroque building

After the Order of the Cross achieved its greatest importance in the 16th and 17th centuries, it built a new baroque building on the site of the originally Gothic church in the years 1679–1688. The design was provided by the architect Jean Baptiste Mathey , the construction management was incumbent on the builder Domenico Canevale. The church was inaugurated by Prague Archbishop Johann Friedrich von Waldstein , who had been Grand Master of the Lords of the Cross with the Red Star since 1668 .

Furnishing

The facade is decorated with five statues of Bohemian patrons (from left to right: St. Agnes, St. Veit, St. Franz von Assisi ', St. Wenzel, St. Ludmilla) from the years 1723–1824 by Andreas Phillip Quittainer or Mathias Wenzel Jäckel .

The figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John of Nepomuk decorating the portal are by Richard Prachner.

The interior of the church was decorated with marble from Praha-Slivenec.

Well-known artists were involved in the execution of the decorations: the stucco work was done by Tomaso Soldati, the frescoes by Wenzel Lorenz Reiner , from whom the dome painting Last Judgment comes. The main altar painting “Stigmatization of St. Franz von Assisi "created Johann Christoph Lischka , the side altar painting" Elevation of the Holy Cross "and the painting" Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple "Lischka's stepfather Michael Willmann . The painting of St. Agnes was made by Johann Georg Heinsch . The ten niches in the church were decorated with sandstone statues by the sculptors Matthäus Jäckel : Saints Magdalena, Joseph, Nepomuk and John the Baptist , Conrad Max Süßner : Saints Barbara, Katherina, Georg and Jeremias Süßner : Saints Joachim, Martin and Anna .

Josef Seger , Christoph Willibald Gluck and Antonín Dvořák worked as organists at the Kreuzherrenkirche.

After the Velvet Revolution in 1990, the church and the adjoining convent building was again the Kreuzherren Order restituted .

literature

  • Marianne Mehling (Ed.): Knaur's cultural guide in color Czech Republic, Slovak Republic. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-426-26609-1 , p. 218.
  • Erhard Gorys : DuMont art travel guide Czech Republic. Culture, landscape and history in Bohemia and Moravia. DuMont, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-7701-2844-3 , pp. 54f.
  • Jan Otto (Ed.): Ottův Slovnik Naučný. Volume 20: Pohora - Q. v. Praha 1908, OCLC 309989218 , p. 456.
  • Arcibiskupství pražské (ed.): Svatá Anežka Česká - princezna a řeholnice. (Catalog for the exhibition of the same name), Praha 2011, ISBN 978-80-7422-145-3 .
  • Václav Ledvinka, Jiří Pešek: Prague. Nakladatelstvi Lidonve Noviny, Praha 2000, ISBN 80-7106-462-9 (German translation)
  • Petr Heřman: Křižovnicky kostel sv. Frantiska in Staletá Praha - Královská cesta . kolektiv autorů, Panorama, Praha 1991, p. 235 ff
  • Dr. Vojtěch Sádlo: Kostel sv. Františka u Křižovníků v Praze, Praha 1941

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Prehistory. ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: praha.eu, accessed January 19, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.praha.eu
  2. ↑ Radio Prague: Saint Agnes - princess and nun. accessed January 1, 2013.
  3. ^ Evžen Veselý: Prague - churches, chapels, synagogues. Asco Verlag, 1992, ISBN 80-85377-16-0 .
  4. ^ Detlev Arens: Prague - Culture and History of the "Golden City". DuMont, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-7701-4303-0 . (online at: books.google.de, accessed June 7, 2011)
  5. ^ Sigfried Asche: Three families of sculptors on the Elbe , Verlag RM Rohrer, Vienna and Wiesbaden, 1961

Web links

Commons : Church of St. Francis of Assisi (Prague)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 11.5 "  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 51.2"  E