Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: A Gothic and Baroque Parish Church in Prostějov
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia, Margraviate of Moravia
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page25 sections
History
The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a Roman Catholic parish and deanery church in Prostějov, Czechia. Its present form combines a Gothic medieval foundation with Baroque rebuilding, while the site itself has a history reaching back to before 1200. The church is regarded as one of Prostějov’s oldest monuments and has a stated capacity of 1,400 people.
Medieval foundations and the Augustinian monastery
The church stands on the site of an earlier defensive fortress and a Romanesque church dedicated to the Holy Cross. Both were destroyed during the wars of the margraves of Moravia. A new phase began on 1 November 1391, when Petr of Kravaře, a Moravian nobleman, founded an Augustinian Canons’ monastery at the southeastern end of the town square. Augustinian Canons followed the rule of Saint Augustine, and the foundation was planned for twelve canons led by a provost, the head of this kind of religious community.
Canons from Roudnice nad Labem were invited to Prostějov, and the monastery and its church were built in the High Gothic style after the model of the Roudnice monastery. The medieval church was a three-aisled building. Its Gothic choir survives as part of the present structure and belongs to the construction period of the Augustinian foundation.
Hussite destruction and Utraquist use
The monastery and church were destroyed by Hussite forces in 1430, shortly after their completion. The Augustinian canons fled and moved to Olomouc in 1434. Most of Prostějov subsequently followed Utraquism, a reform movement whose adherents required communion under both bread and wine. The Utraquists initially did not restore the Catholic church, but they reused the surviving perimeter walls of the nave.
This reuse changed the building from a three-aisled church into a single hall with a flat, painted wooden ceiling. A wall separated the damaged presbytery from the nave. After Petr Turnovský of Tarnůvka, the town’s hetman, admonished the community, restoration was undertaken in 1586–1588. The separating wall was removed, and the church received a new Gothic form. It served the Utraquists for about a century.
Return to Catholic administration and the fire of 1697
In 1622, Prince Karel of Liechtenstein returned the church to Catholic administration. The parish priest Jan Gottfried Hlaušek and the mayor Mikuláš Michalů obtained a Renaissance monstrance and commissioned several additions, including a Holy Sepulchre, a representation of the Last Supper, and a wooden cross. That cross later became the cross on the high altar.
During the Thirty Years’ War, a conflict that devastated much of Central Europe in the seventeenth century, Prostějov was plundered by Swedish and Austrian forces. A major town fire in 1697 left only the bare walls of the church nave standing. The repair was assigned to the local builders Martin Kafka and Matyáš Klingseisen, probably following designs by the Italian architect Giovanni Pietro Tencalla, who was then in episcopal service.
A wooden cross beside the northern entrance survived the fire of 27 April 1697. Its survival was regarded as a miracle. Dean František Xaver Leffler obtained permission from the bishop to place it on the high altar, and priests installed it there on 14 September 1703, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The church was dedicated on 16 September 1703 and has functioned as a pilgrimage site since that time. The annual city pilgrimage takes place on 14 September.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century changes
A northern extension containing a side entrance to the presbytery was added in 1845. Later nineteenth-century work brought furnishings from Saint Wenceslas Cathedral in Olomouc, where some elements had been removed during regothicization, the restoration of a building in a Gothic or Gothic Revival style.
In October 1904, the town council appointed Karel Dostál-Lutinov as parish priest. He initiated a major renovation that uncovered the Gothic arches of the former main entrance and commissioned Jano Köhler, František Bílek, and other artists to decorate the church. The exterior was repaired in 1923–1924, and Köhler and the painting firm of Jan Ježek of Bystřice pod Hostýnem repainted the interior in 1934.
During both world wars the bells were requisitioned, but Karel Dostál-Lutinov secured the survival of the Prostějov bells. The church deteriorated during the socialist period. In February 1989, parishioners organized repairs involving 55 volunteers, and further repairs and repainting followed after 1989. The later painting was simpler than the 1934 decoration and used only two tones. In 1985, snow sliding from the steep northern roof pulled down the stone cross beside the main entrance; the stonemason Otruba of Plumlov repaired it.
Artistic commissions and religious life
The Way of the Cross was commissioned from František Bílek by Dostál-Lutinov in 1904. Bílek completed it in 1906 and personally painted the eleventh and thirteenth stations. He described the work as arising from mystical states, supernatural visions, and the conviction that God guided his hand. It was installed on 10 September 1906 and consecrated on 15 September by the Olomouc Capuchin Hubert Exel. Karel and Pravoslava Wichterle paid the cost of 10,000 crowns.
The church belongs to the Diocese of Olomouc and the Prostějov deanery. Its continuing dedication is expressed by the miraculous cross placed above the high altar and by the annual feast and pilgrimage held on 14 September.
Remains
The present masonry church is approximately 50 metres long, 14 metres wide, and 18 metres high. Its surviving Gothic fabric is combined with Baroque rebuilding and later furnishings. The main body preserves the medieval choir and the reused walls of the former nave, while the interior is organized around the high altar and a series of side altars. The tower rises separately to 64.24 metres and has a ground floor followed by seven upper storeys.
Medieval fabric and tower
Gothic choir and nave walls
The Gothic choir belongs to the church built for the Augustinian monastery in the late fourteenth century. After the Hussite destruction, the surviving perimeter walls of the three-aisled nave were adapted for a single hall. The hall received a flat painted wooden ceiling, and the former separation between the damaged presbytery and nave was removed during the restoration of 1586–1588. The building therefore preserves both the outline of the medieval church and the physical results of its post-destruction adaptation.
Church tower and bells
The tower is 64.24 metres high, with seven upper storeys above its ground floor. Two bells hang in it today. The large Holy Cross bell, also called the “rough” bell, is described as one of the largest in Moravia. The second is the Saint Anne bell, known as the “noon” bell.
High altar and miraculous cross
Marble baldachin altar
The high altar dates from 1764 and is a marble baldachin altar, meaning that a canopy rises above the altar. Its centre contains a Crucifixion group with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist. The corpus of Christ, regarded as miraculous, dates from the 1620s. The remaining sculptural elements are probably by Jan Michael Scherhauf or his workshop.
Wooden cross
The wooden cross that survived the fire of 27 April 1697 is positioned on the high altar. A gilded plaque on its crossbeam commemorates the survival in Latin and describes the cross as a beautiful phoenix. Its installation on 14 September 1703 gave the church its enduring pilgrimage association.
Side altars
Altar of the Assumption
The Altar of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was restored in 1703. Its sandstone mensa, or altar table, contains a sepulchrum, a cavity for relics, holding relics of the martyrs Saint Alexander and Saint Beniquae. The 1879 altarpiece was painted by the Viennese artist Josef Kastner. Its sculptures represent Saint Anne and Saint Juliana, with Saint Apollonia, Saint Paulina, and Saint Martin above.
Altar of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
Prostějov parishioners donated the Altar of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in 1703. The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints traditionally invoked together in times of illness and danger. A statue of Saint Rosalia stands in a niche above the altar. Above it is a 1754 copy by Josef I. Sadler of an image of Saint Thecla, whose original is in the town museum. Sculptures of the Fourteen Holy Helpers surround the image.
Altar of Our Lady of Sorrows
The Altar of Our Lady of Sorrows dates from around 1750 and was made by the sculptor Jan Schubert. It contains a Pietà, a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead Christ, together with statues of Saint Veronica and Saint Mary Magdalene.
Altars from Saint Wenceslas Cathedral
The Baroque marble reredos, or decorated structure behind an altar, of the Altar of Saints Cyril and Methodius came from Saint Wenceslas Cathedral in Olomouc. It was installed to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the arrival of the two ninth-century Byzantine missionaries in Moravia. Jan Matejko painted the central image of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 1889, while late nineteenth-century statues of Saints Peter and Paul stand on either side.
The Altar of Saints Wenceslas, John, Paul, and John Sarkander also has a reredos from Saint Wenceslas Cathedral and was installed in 1889. For the Saint Wenceslas millennium in 1929, Jano Köhler painted an oil image of the murder of Saint Wenceslas. The original statues of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the angels were made by Jan A. Richter.
Altar of Saint Joseph
After an earlier altar was destroyed in the great fire, an altar dedicated to Saint Joseph, Saint Anne, and Saint Anthony of Padua was erected. In 1762, parish priest Jiří Ostružník left 1,450 gulden for a new altar. Josef Kastner painted its 1879 image of Saint Joseph, and František Antonín Sebastini painted Saint Anne teaching her daughter Mary. The workshop of Jan M. Scherhauf produced the statues of Saints Sebastian and Roch and the angels.
Altar of the Guardian Angel
The Altar of the Guardian Angel was established after the fire and consecrated on 16 September 1703. František de Paula Sluk painted its central image of the Guardian Angel with a child in 1862. Statues of Saints Valentine and Blaise stand at the sides, while Saints Agatha, Apollonia, and Florian appear above.
Altar of Christ’s Agony
The Altar of Christ’s Agony dates from around 1750 and was called “Berg Calvaria” in 1804. Its mensa contains an altar stone with relics of the martyrs Saint Paul and Saint Liberatus. A glazed niche in the reredos holds a kneeling Christ and the Angel of Consolation. The central group, the statues of Saints Peter and John, God the Father, and the angels in the upper structure are attributed to Jan Schubert. Since 2017, the Eucharist has been transferred to this altar during the Maundy Thursday rites.
Interior decoration and adjoining chapel
Paintings, stained glass, and Way of the Cross
Jano Köhler painted frescoes on the presbytery walls and also produced stained glass for the church. His 1934 interior decoration was later replaced by simpler painting in two tones. Bílek’s Way of the Cross forms part of the interior decoration, with compositional designs for the series and the personally painted eleventh and thirteenth stations.
Holy Trinity Chapel and old sacristy
The Holy Trinity Chapel occupies the area of the cloister garden and is physically linked to the church by the old sacristy. This surviving connection preserves a material relationship between the church and the former monastic complex.
Altar table
A new altar table facing the congregation was installed in 1978, adding a later liturgical element to the historic interior.
