Church of the Sending of the Holy Apostles in Litomyšl: A Gothic Hospital Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page11 sections
History
The Church of the Sending of the Holy Apostles is a Catholic church in Czechia that stands on Toulovcovo Square in Litomyšl. Built in the Gothic period, it formed part of a medieval hospital first documented in 1347 and now belongs to the Roman Catholic Parish-Provostry of Litomyšl. The church itself appears in written records from 1407, although it was probably older and may have begun as the hospital’s chapel before becoming a small Gothic church.
The Medieval Hospital
The hospital’s founder and exact foundation date are unknown. Benedictines or Premonstratensians, both Catholic monastic orders, may have established it after occupying the area. For a time, the chapel and hospital were reportedly linked by a shared vaulting structure.
During the fifteenth century, the institution housed 22 poor or sick people, with capacity rising to 24 from 1440. At the beginning of the century, a separate cottage outside the town was established for three contagious patients, most of them people with leprosy. The hospital’s regulations gave sick residents priority over poor residents. If a new sick person needed admission, the strongest poor resident was to leave, while residents divided equally whatever they received through begging. The rules also prohibited patients from sleeping in the church and disturbing other worshippers.
Vavřinec Toulovec’s Foundation
In 1407, Vavřinec Toulovec of Třemošná, a landholder associated with Litomyšl, endowed the hospital with an annual income of 17 kop from his court at Trusnov. A kop was a historical Bohemian monetary and accounting unit. In 1408, Toulovec added six kop from his village of Mladočov, and King Wenceslas IV confirmed the endowment. Toulovec also set out how the money was to be distributed. Almost five centuries later, twelve poor elderly residents were still receiving allowances from his foundation.
Toulovec was probably buried beside the church altar. A wall portrait of him was painted in 1408 and renewed in 1511 and 1842. The last reference to him dates from 1412, when he probably died. In early 1413, Bishop Jan granted indulgences to those who attended devotions for the hospital’s benefactors.
Survival and Later Institutional Change
The hospital and church survived the Hussite uprising, a fifteenth-century religious conflict in Bohemia, without major damage. The Hussites instead concentrated their attack on the Gothic Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, which stood on the site of the present first castle courtyard and was demolished in 1425.
In the seventeenth century, the municipality and local manorial authorities supported the hospital. Vratislav of Pernstein established another endowment in 1629. Through loans and accumulated property, the institution developed into a hospital estate and large farm administered by the town. Its wealth helped protect municipal property after the Thirty Years’ War, when profits held by the town before the war otherwise had to be returned to the manorial authorities.
Changing financial conditions weakened Toulovec’s foundation, and the number of residents fell to twelve in 1761. By 1839, the hospital estate had been incorporated into the town’s land-register holdings, with the municipality assuming responsibility for care. The institution had become an infirmary without a permanent building. Twelve elderly poor people lived in different parts of Litomyšl and received allowances from Toulovec’s foundation.
Several charitable and medical institutions operated nearby. These included a castle hospital founded in 1667 for twelve people, a Czech Brethren hospital, and three further cottages for patients established in 1735 as the threat of plague approached. The municipal hospital founded in Litomyšl in 1847 took over the functions of these institutions.
Alterations and Conservation
The church was repaired and altered during the eighteenth century, including through Baroque changes. A major Neo-Gothic rebuilding between 1838 and 1842 substantially changed the building, adding the choir-gallery and tower section. After a period of deterioration, partial reconstruction began in 1991 and was completed in 2001. Further conservation took place in 2003 through the national Architectural Heritage Rescue Programme. The church is protected as a cultural monument under Czech heritage law.
Remains
The church is a small, traditionally oriented Gothic building with a single nave. Its eastern end forms five sides of a regular octagon. Four two-stepped buttresses strengthen the termination, while three buttresses of the same type stand along both the north and south walls of the nave. The exterior has smooth white plastered facades, with the backs of the buttresses treated differently. A stucco main cornice, painted ochre, runs around the building.
Gothic Exterior
The church has one sandstone portal shaped as an unprofiled pointed arch. A pointed arch is formed by two curves meeting at an apex. The windows belong to two forms. Three openings in the eastern termination, one central and two in the side walls, are centrally divided and contain tracery, the ornamental stone framework of a Gothic window. Their design combines a trefoil within a spherical triangle and two cusps.
Two smaller pointed windows without internal divisions pierce the nave walls, and two identical openings light the choir-gallery section. Another small window of the same type is placed above the portal. The west end, rebuilt in the Neo-Gothic period, has a slightly enlarged ground plan and adjoins the first Gothic buttress. Its projecting central tower contains the vestibule and entrance portal. The lower level holds the doorway, while a window occupies the upper level on the same axis. Above the main cornice, the windowless upper part steps back twice. The belfry has windows on all four sides, fitted with wooden louvers, and ends in a cornice matching the main one.
Eighteenth-Century Additions
An adjacent granary was attached to the church in 1705. After a fire, a sanctus bell turret containing three bells was added in 1735. A second fire in 1775 led to its replacement by a new turret, and the building was repaired again after a fire in 1814. Baroque capitals were placed on the supports of the vault during this period, but they were removed during the later return to a Neo-Gothic appearance.
Interior Structure
The interior is 13 metres long, and the nave is 7.66 metres wide. The rectangular main part of the nave is covered by two bays of cross vaulting, formed where two barrel vaults intersect. The eastern termination, defined by three sides of an octagon in the interior plan, carries a radial vault whose ribs spread outward from a central point.
Circular vault bosses decorate the ceiling intersections. One in the sanctuary bears a red lily, the emblem of Litomyšl. The ribs are rectangular in section and slightly hollowed, continuing smoothly into cylindrical wall supports that reach the floor. The bosses, ribs, and supports are grey plastered, contrasting with the white walls and vault.
Choir Gallery and Furnishings
The Neo-Gothic choir gallery has a vaulted underside and an upper surface covered by a saucer vault with Neo-Gothic arches. A sacristy, the room used to prepare and store liturgical objects, occupies its north side, while a staircase lies to the south. Both spaces are entered through rectangular portals. The sanctuary has a raised wooden floor, while the rest of the church is paved with stone.
The original furnishings have not survived. Elements from the nineteenth-century rebuilding include an organ dated 1840 and a wooden baluster-like railing on the choir gallery. The sanctuary contains a modern wooden altar table, and a modern wooden cross hangs on the wall.
Roof and Tower
The church is covered by a hipped roof, while the tower has a sheet-metal pyramidal roof. Together with the buttressed Gothic walls, the western tower records the building’s successive medieval, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic phases.
