Tynska Stupartska
Tel. 6022 04 213 Subway: Staromestska, Mustek
Open: 10am- 12pm, 3- 5pm Tue- Sun
Service: 6pm Tue- Thu, 8am Sat,
9:30am, 9pm Sun
www.tyn.cz
Church of Our Lady before Tyn is a historic Christian church that
dominates the complex around the Old Town Square. Its multiple steeples
stand out with unique appearance. Its construction began in 1365
originally as a Roman Catholic Church, but soon it became involved in a
Reformist Hussite movement in the early 15th century. The Hussite King
George of Podebrady took his Ultraquist community in Church of Our Lady
before Tyn. The Hussite movement was crashed in 1620 and in 1621
communion chalice of the church was melted down and made into a statue
of the Madonna. Additionally Catholic armies removed letters of the
slogan "Truth prevails" that hanged above the entrance. Church of Our
Lady before Tyn is also famous as it is a final resting place of famous
astronomer Tycho Brahe.
Predecessors of today's building
The oldest, still
Romanesque, predecessor of today's church in these places was created in
connection with the development of the nearby Týnské dvor in the course
of the 12th century, the first written mention of which dates back to
1135. At this time, when it was already dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
the monarch entrusted it to the care of the Vyšehrad Chapter . Along
with the growing Old Town, it grew in importance and became a parish
church. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, it was replaced by
an early Gothic three-nave building with three vaulted bays with a crypt
under a polygonally finished presbytery and at least one tower in the
western facade. In the tower, there is evidence of a bell from 1310,
when it played a role in the occupation of Prague by John of Luxembourg.
Part of the tower was preserved until 1894 as the so-called chapel of
St. Ludmila following the sacristy. Not long after the completion of the
church, the long-lasting dispute between the Vyšehrad Chapter and
representatives of the parish over the right of patronage was resolved
amicably. Konrád Waldhauser, one of the first reform preachers, worked
as a parish priest in this church from 1365. He was buried in the
adjacent cemetery in 1369.
Construction of the current church
In the middle of the 14th century, the parishioners, who were among the
wealthiest of the city's patricians, with the support of important
bourgeois families from other parish districts, started the new
construction of the highly Gothic three-nave basilica, which became the
main church of the old town not only in the late Middle Ages. In the
basic plan, relatively conservative architecture was gradually
influenced by masters coming from the largest construction company in
Bohemia, from both Prague cathedral smelters, in the first phase by
Matyáš from Arras and then by Petr Parléř. The tracery of the windows of
the main nave and especially the 28 m high window of the eastern facade
point to the latter. Furthermore, there is an unusually magnificent
sculptural north portal with a passion cycle in the tympanum and a seat
in the ends of both side naves. The northern seat refers with its
iconography to the artistic environment of King Wenceslas IV, who could
also personally or through people from his environment influence these
excellent works of art. At the same time, Týnský church was located near
his new main seat of the Royal Court, so he could visit it personally.
The new building began to serve its purpose around 1380, when the altars
from the original early Gothic church were also transferred. Three naves
were completed before the Hussite storms broke out, but it is not
certain whether the main nave was vaulted. At that time, the building
lacked the west gable, most likely the vault and roof of the nave and
the two towers.
The Týn church was relatively soon taken over by
the reform party, and in the Hussite times it then became one of the
leading churches of the podoboji party. From 1427, Jan Rokycana worked
here, elected but never confirmed Utraquist archbishop in 1435, a close
associate of Jiří z Poděbrady, who was also buried in the church near
the sacristy in 1471. After the Hussite Wars, the building was supposed
to be finished and roofed, but the timber for the roof was instead to be
used to build the gallows for Jan Roháč of Dubá and his 50 companions,
executed by order of Emperor Sigismund. The roof was probably completed
only 20 years later in 1457.
Construction continued during the
reign of Jiří z Poděbrady, elected king at the nearby Old Town Hall,
whose heart was later buried in the temple, according to his wishes,
next to the grave of Jan Rokycana. By 1463, the gable of the main nave
was erected and in 1466 the northern tower was completed. A statue of
the monarch with the inscription "Veritas vincit" ("Truth wins") was
placed in the nice shield and a gilded chalice was placed above it. The
southern tower was completed in 1511 during the reign of Vladislav
Jagiellon. Both towers rise to a height of 80 meters.
The
fortunes of the church since 1621
After Bílá hora in 1621, the church
again fell to the Catholic side. The symbols of Utraquism were removed
from the temple, the chalice and the statue of King George were torn
down from the facade in 1623 in a secret night operation led by Canon
Kotva and the Jesuit George Ferus. In the same year, Jan Rokycana's
tombstone was destroyed and his remains, together with those of Bishop
Augustin, were burned in the square. The statue of Jiří z Poděbrady was
replaced by the relief of the Madonna in the halo of the sun by Kašpar
Bechteler.
Soon after the end of the Thirty Years' War (in 1648),
the townspeople began to set up altars in the new Baroque style in
abundance. Among the first was the main altar (year 1649), which is a
symbolic thank you of the people of Prague to the Mother of God for the
end of the long war conflict, similar to the Marian Column on the then
so-named Great Market Square. In 1670, the architect Giovanni Domenico
Orsi completed the new organ stand. In 1679, the church suffered a fire.
The vault of the main nave and the presbytery had to be taken down and
replaced by a baroque barrel vault with lunettes. In 1819, a fire
engulfed the north tower. Its restoration lasted until 1836, when the
destroyed truss was replaced (according to the south tower, where the
original truss was preserved). During purist modifications in the second
half of the 19th century, the plaster that covered part of the facade
was removed. The church thus received the non-original appearance of
marl stone that we know today.
In 1933, the church of St. Havel,
then in 2009 the church of St. Haštala, connected to the Týn temporarily
already in the Bíbelohorská era. The parish also includes the church of
St. Jakub, who, however, has his own spiritual administration. In the
second half of the 20th century, the Týn Church was famous for the
long-term work of priest Jiří Reinsberg (1946–1993). It was one of the
first places in Bohemia to introduce both the liturgical reforms of Pius
XII. in the 1950s, as well as post-conciliar reforms and translations of
liturgical texts. A specific group of Christians gathered around the
parish, and unlike many other church activities, this society was
tolerated by the communist regime in the center of Prague. From the
1970s to the beginning of the 21st century, the church also underwent an
overall demanding renovation. In August 2017, at the initiative of the
Czech Bishops' Conference, the return of the golden chalice to the
facade was started: its model was first placed there, which was then
replaced by the final sculpture made of copper gilded sheet.
The temple is built from unplastered stone blocks, plastic elements
of the architecture and sculptural decoration are carved from local
marl. It is a Gothic building with the layout of a three-nave basilica
with a pair of towers in the western facade, with a three-choir solution
in the eastern end and with mainly Baroque furniture.
Despite the
later insertion of Baroque and Neo-Gothic elements, the southern side
nave has preserved the original character of a uniform space, vaulted by
cross vaults, which are not separated from each other by significant
inter-vault passes. The buttresses bringing out the vault ribs run down
to the ground and thus rhythmically divide the space of the ship. The
basic architectural feature of the main nave was its two-story
structure, which conditioned the creation of a high, smooth surface
between the tops of the curved arcades and windows.
The distinctly vertical, basilica-style three-nave Gothic church is
equipped in the west with a pair of Gothic prismatic towers. To the
east, the church is finished by a short presbytery with one rectangular
field, polygonally enclosed by four sides of an octagon. The side naves
are finished with shallow polygonal chapels with five sides of an
octagon. The side aisles are vaulted by five fields of cross rib
vaulting on an almost square plan, which are joined by one more cross
rib vault in the basement. The main nave and the presbytery are then
vaulted by six rectangular, horizontally arranged fields of compressed
rolled early Baroque vaults with triangular sections. The side aisles
have preserved the original Gothic rib vault. The church is lit by a
series of raised, pointed Gothic windows equipped with stone tracery.
On the sides of the central gable, with a plan of a decagon with a
buttress in the axis, the pentagonal gables of the side naves meet.
These conclusions are applied from the exterior as triangular. The
eastern side of the side choirs continues directly into the middle
conclusion. The layout of the church was not adapted to the lack of
space, but to be compatible with the development principles of Gothic
architecture of the 14th century.
The western facade, which forms
one of the largest landmarks in Prague, grows out of the spiers that
surround the entire building. The grooves and the outer edges of the
arches are decorated with pear wood. About two-thirds of the way up, it
is interrupted by small rings. The axial support and the two adjacent
ones are topped by a combination of a counter and saddle roof, the
others are finished with a simple main cornice.
The sacristy and
depository are located on the easternmost field of the south side nave,
which are entirely regotiated from the outside. Only the east window of
the sacristy has retained its original paneling as in the side choirs.
The curved portal to the sacristy leads to the spiral staircase. The
depository's entrance is decorated with a stone balustrade. The vault of
the depository and the sacristy are identical, but three figural
consoles (angels, a fight between animal creatures and human figures)
have been preserved at the corners of the depository, which are echoes
of Petr Parléř.
The main architectural feature of the northern
side is the famous portal occupying the area of the facade between the
two supporting pillars. The portal has a semicircular arch, which again
responds to the morphology of Petr Parléř.
The lining of the
arched entrance is decorated with small crabs in the inner and outer
grooves. The renewed symbols of the Czech and Roman empires are embedded
in beets above the arch.
The lining of the tympanum extends to
the inner blocks of both buttresses. It runs from a beveled base. This
lining was interrupted below by tracery panelling. A niche for statues
continues above it, ending with a canopy. The elevated semi-circular
tympanum is composed of five marl slabs with relief depictions of the
Passion of the Lord and the Crucifixion.
At the beveled point of
the portal base, cantilever supports of varying thickness are placed in
the middle and at the corners of the front sides of the supports. The
middle weakest culminates in simple headers. The inner one is the most
massive, placed under a tall ring decorated with ornamental motifs. It
bears stout capitals, where on the right are two angels leading a lion,
a stag, while on the left is Moses between seated angels. Weaker
external buttresses culminate in figural capitals. Plinths for statues
are placed on the cover plates of the corner capitals. The portal was
not completed before the Hussite revolution.
The middle gable and
nave were baroque after a fire in 1679. There are slight traces of the
medieval condition in the attic.
The church is accessible through
four Gothic portals. Axially located west and two portals, broken at the
level of the second field on the north and south sides. The northern
portal has a relief in the tympanum depicting three scenes from Christ's
Passion in multi-figure compositions. The sculpturally high-quality work
ranks among the most important monuments of Gothic sculpture of the
pre-Hussite period in the Czech Republic. The pair of towers is finished
with richly decorated elevated Late Gothic octagonal helms, which are
complemented by a corridor, a quartet of corner spires and, in addition,
interspersed roughly halfway up their height with another quartet of
planted decorative spires. Between the towers is a richly decorated
gothic gable topped with a row of violets containing a baroque relief of
the Madonna.
The remains of the Gothic furnishings include, in particular, a late
Gothic canopy by Matěj Rejsk from 1493. It was originally placed over
the grave of Bishop Augustin Lucian of Mirandola. The canopy of a square
plan is formed by four medium-sized stone polychrome supports, which are
terminated by a curved arch, the so-called donkey's back. These arches
are complemented by decorative corner turrets and enriched with Gothic
ornaments. On each pillar, roughly in the second third, there are
statues. The buttresses supporting the architrave are topped with
violets. On the eastern side, the canopy is decorated with paintings by
Karel Škréta (1610–1674).
The furniture of the church is
currently mostly Baroque. From the original medieval equipment, five
works of art have been preserved in the interior of the church to this
day: a pewter baptismal font from 1414, the oldest and largest in
Prague; stone pulpit in nave; two works by the so-called Master of the
Tyn Calvary from the beginning of the 15th century are very valuable:
the Tyn Madonna and the Calvary sculpture at the end of the north nave;
finally, two late Gothic works of art: on the border of the Renaissance,
there is an altar with a central wood carving of the Baptism of Christ
by a Danube master, called by the signature Monogramist IP from the
period after 1520; the last one is a stone canopy from 1493 probably
coming from the workshop of Matěj Rejsk. It originally covered the tomb
of Bishop Augustin Lucian of Mirandola. Even before its establishment,
the altar of St. Lukáš of the Old Town painter's guild, in the Baroque
with a painting by Karel Škréta St. Lukáš paints a Madonna (today in the
MHMP), replaced in the middle of the 19th century by an existing
painting of the same subject in a neo-Gothic altarpiece by Josef Vojtěch
Hellich.
An extremely interesting set of gravestones and epitaphs
carved in relief has been preserved from the Renaissance and Baroque
periods, including the tombstone of the astronomer Tycho Brahe from
1601, which is located near the first southern pillar of the main nave.
The wood carvings of the early Baroque altars and the valuable organ by
Jan J. Mundt from the years 1670–1673, which are among the three oldest
surviving organs in Prague, stand out from the Baroque furniture. From
1691, musicologist Tomáš Baltazar Janovka worked as the church's
organist for fifty years. Among the early Baroque altars, the main altar
from 1649 with the titular painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
by one of the important Czech Baroque painters, Karel Škréta, is
especially valuable. He is the author of several other canvases of the
side altars. The church also contains works by other Baroque masters:
sculptors Jan Jiří Bendl and Ignác František Weiss (altar sculptures),
Jan Heidelberger (statue of St. Francis of Paula in the north nave),
painters M. Strasser (Finding of the Holy Cross, from the main altar of
the abolished church of the same consecration), Jan Jiří Heinsch
(painting of St. Joseph in the north nave, altar painting of the
Genealogy of Jesse), Michael Václav Halbax (painting of St. Krišpin and
Krišpinián), his friend Petr Brandl (painting Arrival of St. Wenceslas
at the Imperial Diet) , then Ignác Raab (John the Baptist) or František
Xaver Palko (St. Expeditus) from the Rococo period. The presbytery also
houses two large canvases by the Northern Italian Renaissance painter
Romanino (1484–1564) with the subjects of the Visitation of the Virgin
Mary and the Sacrifice of the Lord.
The interior also features
works of art from the 19th century. In 1846, a new statue of St. Cyril
and Methodius from Carrara marble by Emanuel Max, which was donated to
the church by Ferdinand V. In the years 1846-1847, under the leadership
of Josef Vojtěch Hellich, a new arrangement of altars took place, which
to a large extent has lasted in the church until now, he was also the
author of the above-mentioned altar of St. Lukáš and some other altars
he restored or supplemented. In 1854, a new way of the cross was built
by František Čermák, and in 1864, a new altar of the Virgin Mary was
built at the end of the south nave of the church with the title painting
by Antonín Lhota.
Furniture preserved outside the church
In
addition to the works of art in the interior of the temple, several
works originating from the Týn Church have been preserved, but gradually
transferred to important Prague collection-building institutions.
Most of the furniture can be found in the Museum of the Capital City
of Prague: a Gothic pieta from the second half of the 14th century is
the oldest preserved work, originating from the main altar of the
church. The Lament relief comes from the workshop of the Master of the
Týn Calvary, the painting of the Madonna of the so-called St. Vitus type
with a painted frame and the painting of the suffering Christ from the
15th century, and last but not least the above-mentioned Škrét's baroque
painting of St. Luke.
In the National Gallery, we can find above all
the original Tyn tympanum, as well as two wings of the once large altar
by Master Litoměřice (after 1500).
In the Lapidarium of the National
Museum in Prague, there is a substantial part of the tracery window from
the south aisle, a set of plaster casts of the sculptural decoration of
the tympanum and seven parts of the decorative sculpture of the north
portal. Six original marl, sometimes gilded buttress capitals from the
beginning of the 14th century come from the demolished chapel of St.
Ludmila. The balustrade of the choir partition with tracery is also on
display. Other casts were made, for example, from the tombstone of Tycho
Brahe.
Similar to a number of other monuments in Prague, several legends are
associated with the Týn Cathedral. One legend tells of a small bell in
the bell tower of the temple. It is supposed to remind of the maid who
was strangled by her mistress out of anger when she knelt down and began
to pray when the bell from the Tyn Temple rang, instead of helping her
to dress. Due to the social status of the lady in question, the judge
acquitted her of guilt, but every ringing of the bell resonated in her
conscience so much that she had a small bell cast for the Tyn Temple in
memory of that maid. Subsequently, she gave away all her possessions to
the poor and entered a monastery.
Legends associated with the
Church of the Virgin Mary in front of Týn circulate more among people.
Some are probably nothing more than the fabrications of tourist guides.
For example, you can come across a story about a bell ringer who climbed
the towers on a horse. He is said to have first ascended the slimmer
north tower to the balustrade, which he crossed to the entrance to the
south tower. He then tied the horse on the upper walkway, or in one of
the corner towers, if it was raining, so that the horse would not be
frightened when the bells rang. This is evidently a made-up story, which
apparently refers by analogy to the Giralda of Seville, where instead of
stairs there are ramps, along which one really ascended on horseback to
the top of the tower.
other functions
The transmitter (base
transmission station) of the operator T-Mobile Czech Republic is located
in the southern tower of the temple. It has been here since 1996, it is
one of the oldest transmitters of this type in the Czech Republic.