Church of All Saints in Libochovice: A Baroque Parish Church in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page11 sections
History
The Church of All Saints in Libochovice, Czechia, is a Roman Catholic parish church whose present Baroque building was constructed between 1700 and 1705. It belongs to the Czech ecclesiastical province and the Diocese of Litoměřice, within the Litoměřice vicariate and Libochovice deanery. The church stands on the site of a fourteenth-century Gothic parish church, while a parish church and its associated local ecclesiastical administration already existed at Libochovice before 1352.
Medieval church and seventeenth-century fires
The earlier Gothic parish church is mentioned in 1382. It was altered in 1622, but on 7 August 1624 a major fire severely damaged the building and melted its bells. New bells were installed the following year, although repairs advanced slowly. The church was subsequently described as ruined or abandoned, and services were transferred to the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in the castle.
A second fire in 1661 destroyed the church down to its foundations. Part of the oratory, a connected prayer or viewing space, and the stone tower survived. Countess Ludmila Šternberková began reconstruction, but an Italian builder known as Dominik abandoned the unfinished work and fled Bohemia with the money. The incomplete structure was then demolished. For eighteen years, worship took place in the nearby Chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which had escaped the fire because of its position.
Rebuilding the parish church
In February 1692, the rector of the Jesuit college at Chomutov appealed to Prince Dietrichstein in Vienna for assistance with rebuilding. Maintenance work, especially on the tower and rectory, was underway by 1694. In 1695, Bishop Jaroslav Ignác Šternberk of Litoměřice made confirmation of a new priest conditional on bringing the church into usable condition. Father Karel Hoffer, Knight of Lobenstein, then became parish priest and helped advance the rebuilding plans.
In 1699, 3,700 florins were secured, chiefly from church endowments belonging to other churches in the parish. Parishioners contributed another 214 florins, the rector of the Chomutov college gave 52 florins, and the estate authorities added further support. Construction of the present church began on 14 May 1700 under Johann Georg Lechleitner of Budyně and the foreman Filip Czok. Parts of the earlier church’s foundation masonry were reused, and Prince Dietrichstein received regular reports on the progress. The roof was installed in 1701.
Bruno Kunovský, provost of Doksany, consecrated the church on 1 November 1705 under the dedication of All Saints, although work was still continuing. Father Václav Vojtěch Henniger, Knight of Seeberg, who served from 1708 to 1738, completed the building, repaired the existing enclosure wall, and built a new wall along the side facing the town. His successor, Josef Jan Gallasch, continued the furnishing and improvement of the interior from 1738 to 1773.
Parish development and later changes
The rebuilding encouraged new support for the church. Between 1700 and 1760, twenty-two lay endowments were established, compared with two before the reconstruction, and their combined nominal principal amounted to 3,900 florins. A spacious single-storey rectory was also built beside the church to replace the old rectory, which had long been uninhabitable.
The tower was slightly raised in 1727, its windows were altered in 1745, and its dome was repaired in 1748. Documents concerning repairs in 1622, 1624, 1699, and 1704 were found in the finial ball. The tower was repaired and raised again in 1892. Important townspeople and estate officials were buried inside the church until the Josephine reforms, the late eighteenth-century measures introduced under Emperor Joseph II that restricted or reorganized religious institutions and burial practices.
The interior paving, pews, painted decoration, and sculptural decoration were renewed during remodelling in 1902 and 1903. Further alterations took place between 1996 and 2005, while the strongly Baroque character established during the first half of the eighteenth century was retained. The church has been protected as a cultural monument since 1964.
Remains
Plan and exterior
The church is oriented east and measures 34 metres internally in length, 12.5 metres in width, and 15 metres in height. Built of stone and masonry, it has a rectangular single nave with side chapels. The presbytery, the area reserved for the principal altar and clergy, has buttresses and a three-sided termination. A rectangular tower stands on the north side, while a chapel with an oratory above it occupies the south side.
The side facades and the eastern termination are divided by lesene frames, flat narrow strips applied to the walls, which extend through both the ground and upper floors. Ground-floor windows have semicircular heads, while those above have segmental heads. A rectangular entrance pierces the north wall. The tower has its own rectangular entrance, lesene framing, and segmental-headed windows with upper extensions.
A stairway annex on the north side has the date 1541 on its portal. The upper northern wall bears a carved coat of arms of the Hazmburk family, an earlier noble house associated with Libochovice. The three-bay west facade is arranged with tall pilasters, recessed panels, and framing. Its portal has a stuccoed supraporte, a decorative composition placed above a doorway, and is surmounted by a rectangular window with a triangular upper feature and flanking volute walls. A statue of Saint Lawrence crowns the facade, while statues of two bishops stand on the side piers.
Vaulted interior
The presbytery is covered by a barrel vault with intersecting lunettes, curved sections formed where openings meet a larger vault. On its south side, a semicircular arch leads into a chapel with a barrel vault and two intersecting lunettes. Oratories above the sacristy and the chapels beside the presbytery open toward the presbytery through broad, flattened arches richly decorated with stucco. The northern oratory has a barrel vault with a transverse band, and the southern oratory has a barrel vault with intersecting lunettes.
Four bays of barrel vaulting with lunettes cover the nave, while transverse bands converge on pilasters. A masonry gallery rests on a broad flattened arch and has its own barrel vault with lunettes. Chapels on both sides of the nave open through semicircular arcade arches, with galleries above them opening through flattened arches. The pair of chapels beside the presbytery spans the full width of the building and suggests a transept. The chapels and galleries also have barrel vaults with lunettes and transverse bands. Rich stucco decoration from the first quarter of the eighteenth century survives in both the nave and presbytery.
Altars and devotional furnishings
High altar
The wooden Baroque high altar dates from 1745 and replaced an earlier stone altar. It carries an unfinished painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by an unknown artist, along with statues of Saint Augustine and Saint Norbert by Bartoloměj Eder, a Tyrolean sculptor working in Budyně. Quido Bukleshaim, a painter originally from Styria, created the gilded decoration in the upper section. Leopold of Dietrichstein donated the painting, which had first been intended for the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Polná. Tradition says that the artist became mentally ill while painting it and left the work unfinished.
Side altars
The two side altars nearest the presbytery carry paintings of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and Our Lady of Sorrows. The castle gardener Jan Tulipán financed them in 1711 and also donated four paintings of the Passion of Jesus Christ and a large copper cross with the crucified Christ. A smaller altar dedicated to Saint Anne was commissioned by Jakub Tayzík and his wife Anna.
Adam Krondl, formerly captain of the Vlachovo Březí estate, financed a statue of Saint John of Nepomuk for the church on the occasion of the saint’s canonization. He also supported a Saint Barbara altar that was later removed. Anna Tomášková, the widow of an estate revenue official, commissioned an altar dedicated to Our Lady of Klatovy. An additional seventh side altar, whose dedication was not given, stood opposite the left-hand entrance in the church’s early years.
Two further side altars, dedicated to the Madonna and the Archangel Michael, are Rococo. Father Gallasch rebuilt the Saint John of Nepomuk altar at his own expense in 1746, and Siardus Nosecký, a Premonstratensian from Strahov, painted its image. In 1747, Prince Karel of Dietrichstein donated a relic of Saint Clement obtained from Pope Benedict XIII. The Premonstratensian nuns of Doksany made a glass-fronted chest reliquary for it, and the relic was solemnly installed in the Saint John of Nepomuk altar during Easter in 1748.
In 1759, the original Our Lady of Klatovy altar was replaced by an altar dedicated to Our Lady of Karlov, paid for by the Libochovice townsman Antonín Paul and his wife Anna. The original statue was transferred to the church at Solany. An Archangel Michael altar was established from the estate of the priest Jan Podhorský. Father Gallasch financed a small Saint Aloysius altar near the high altar in 1763, but it was destroyed by fire shortly after his death. The dedications of the side altars changed over time, especially those of the two altars closest to the main entrance.
Pulpit, organ, and enclosure
Jan Josef Klein made the wooden pulpit in 1749. Its Rococo decoration includes the symbols of the Evangelists and a statue of the Good Shepherd on the sounding board. Jan Ditman of Bílina gilded it in 1751.
Work on the organ began in 1736 under Matěj Guth of Čistá and was completed in 1739 by his son František after Guth’s premature death. The instrument has sixteen stops and sculptural decoration showing two trumpet-playing angels and one drumming angel. Its construction cost 960 florins from church endowment funds.
A fence and wall enclose the churchyard. Their Baroque gateway consists of two rectangular piers topped by stone vases. Before the middle of the twentieth century, statues of Saint Roch, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Barbara were transferred from different locations in the town to the church grounds. The north wall also contains the heraldic tombstone of Jan Kavkovec of Kavkovice, dated 1613.
