Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (Most)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (in Czech Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie) is a church building in Most, a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. In 1975 the whole building was moved by over 800 meters, to free the original place for coal mining.
Contents |
[edit] Older building
The dean church in Most, which stood in the middle of the church yard near the road to Žatec, burned down in the year 1515. From that building was preserved only its eastern crypt and the inner peripheral brickwork of the western tower. (The foundation of this church is indicated in the years 1253 till 1257 and indirectly proven by the document of the pope Bonifacio VIII from the year 1296. The construction was originally an early Gothic basilica of three naves.)
[edit] Construction
The building of the new church began on the 20th of August 1517, when has been laid the base stone. The designer was Jacob Heilmann from Schweinfurt. He proposed the church as a big hall of tree naves, with inside supports with a pentagonal presbytery and a prismatic tower with a gallery in the main elevation. A vestibule is in the northern wall and at the north-western wall is a sacristy.
During the first year went on demolition works. Master Jacob gave over the project of the new building in the year 1518 only. The leading of the building works took over the foreman Jörg (Georg) of Maulbron. After the foreman Jörg (Georg) took over the control another foreman called Peter, perhaps Heilmann. The vaults of the peripheral chapels have been finished during the second decade of 16th century, then have been erected the inner pillars and placed the ends of the arch ribs.
The church has been prepared for vaulting in the year 1532, then have been placed the windows and were dressed the vaulting ribs. The carcassing has been finished in 1549. The renaissance portals came into existence at half of the 16th century. Unfortunately the church burnt out 1578 and has been repaired till 1602. The church could be blessed in the year 1597.
[edit] Later repairs
A new roof on the church has been made during the year 1650. A wall round the cemetery round the church and the ossuary has been ruined in 1840. The last big repair has been made during the years 1880-1883, during which the interior has been shaped in Gothic style and a part of the baroque inventory has been removed. There has been made a new gothic paint and installed the equipment in the new gothic style. A repair was made under the leading of the arch. Karl Kühn. The plaster renovation of the outer walls, as well as a treatment of the stone parts was made in 1932. The big main altar originated during the years 1735-1739. Its plastic decoration has been made in the workshop of the sculptor Bartolomeo Eder and the big altar picture from Josef Kramolín. Both are from the year 1773.
[edit] Transport of the building
During the sixties, Most's historic center was completely destroyed to make room for the expanding lignite mines, a process that lasted until 1970. Unlike other historical building it was decided to save the church by moving it away from mining area.
During September 30 - October 27, 1975 the church has been moved to the distance of 841,1 m to the vicinity of the old hospital and a small church of St. Ghost in October and it has been set on an iron-concrete two storied foundations. The transport velocity was 1-3 cm in a minute.
This building was mentioned in Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest building ever moved on wheels.
[edit] Technology
For salvation of the church has been chosen a transport variant on a bow path. The transfer has been realised according the projects of the firm Transfera Praha, which was an organisation of the Ministra of Culture of the Czechoslovakia. The transfer have realised the national corporations Průmstav Pardubice and Škoda Plzeň.
President of the expert committee set up by Culture Ministry was academician Stanislav Bechyně. From 1969 the committee was led by Alois Myslivec. Under his leading the commission watched the projecting activities and the own realisation of the transfer action.
The peripheral masonry, the bearing and supporting pillars have been reinforced, the remainder of the western tower has been demolished. The church circumference has been reinforced by a concrete ring and the church has been gripped by a steel framework construction on the inner as well as outer sides.
On the constructed traveller rails have been plugged 53 transport trucks, which have been inserted under all statically important points of the church. These transport trucks worked on a hydraulic principle. The 4 booms, which should pull, event. break the church, have been controlled on hydraulic principle. The work has been controlled by a computer, but hand intervention was not excluded. During the motion of the church on the road fill, the rails have been moved from behind to forward.
The preparations works lasted seven years. (It was necessary to demolish all houses in the transfer path, fill the former opencast mine Richard etc.). The church has been put on a new place after 27 transfer days. The restoration works were made till the year 1988 and the church has been solemnly blessed again in the year 1993.
[edit] Architecture
This church has only one tower in conformity with the South-German gothic. Its interior makes a simple and rigour impression. The walls are plain, the peripheral walls are broken by two rows of windows. The lower windows belong to the individual chapels and the upper ones belong to the flank naves of the hall. The inside of the church forms a big hall, divided in three naves by seven pairs of octahedral columns. Between the counterforts are inscrted 16 chapels, two side vestibules, a sacristy, a double worm staircase on the eastern side and a worm staircase on the western side. Each of the chapels has its own ribbed vault and is dedicated to its donator – to the guilds, to rich citizens and one of them to the ecclesiastic dignity, to the abbot Bartolomeo of Osek.
In the church interior there is now installed an exposition of the Gothic and Renaissance art of the north-western Bohemia. The church basement is used as an exhibition space for the North-Bohemian Gallery.
[edit] External links
- Short overview (in Czech)
