The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady in Old Brno Abbey is a

high Gothic High Gothic is a particularly refined and imposing style of Gothic architecture that appeared in northern France from about 1195 until 1250. Notable examples include Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Beauvais Cathedral, and ...

, monumental convent temple. It was founded in 980-1020 by the unknown lord or monarch in

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...

. It was built on the site of an ancient sanctuary from the late 10th century in a short time in the years 1323 to 1334 at the instigation of Queen Elizabeth Richeza. It is the best preserved stylistically coherent and unified temple in

Lands of Bohemian crown The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were a number of incorporated states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods connected by feudal relations under the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of B ...

History

The temple is rightly called a gem of gothic architecture of Lands of Bohemian crown. In 1323 the double queen - royal widow Elizabeth Richeza founded a

Cistercian convent Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. History The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in ...

( in Latin) called ''Aulae Sanctae Mariae'' beside to the oldest pre romanesque parisch church of Oure Lady in Old Brno. After her death in 1335 Elizabeth Richeza found her final resting burial place in the basilica. The spot is marked by the letter „E“ with a small crown carved in the paving of the church. In the 18th century, the interior of the church was rebuilt in the

baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires includin ...

. That period also witnessed the finishing of the Baroque buildings of the Abbey. In the 1783 the Austrian Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

closter abbey Old Brno was dissolved ( Josephinists reforms) and ordened the Augustinians to move to Old Brno from their original monastery of St. Thomas was situated in front of Běhounská Gate (Porta Rhenensis), later Lažansky square (what is now Moravské náměstí). The

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–1 ...

also had a glourious „silver altar“ in

baldachin A baldachin, or baldaquin (from it, baldacchino), is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over hi ...

form made in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

and erected when the icon of the Black Madonna was crowned in 1736. At the

Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

of Our Lady a pilgrimage is held every year on August 15 in the basilica to worhip her as the Protector of the city of Brno. The abbey church was promoted in 1987 by

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

to the rank of a

Minor Basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

Architecture

The abbey church is of typical

Cistercian architecture Cistercian architecture is a style of architecture associated with the churches, monasteries and abbeys of the Roman Catholic Cistercian Order. It was heavily influenced by Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Ber ...

, built in the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

- cruciform layout - main nave,

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

and two side

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, pa ...

s. The nave and its flanking aisles have a vaulted by

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islami ...

. The nave and its transept a vaulted

ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...

more than 22 m (72,6 ft) high. The triple choir consists of the right choir in the east and two side chapels in cruciform layout. The crossing is separated from the nave by a massive transverse arches. Whole building body have 34 monumental

tracery window Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

s, most of them tripled. Nine of them with

lancet arch Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. I ...

, 14 equilateral arch. The church was primarily constructed as fair faced brick work (

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

), the first

brick Gothic Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...

building in the region but using also stone (for

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

es,

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry con ...

s, dripstones,

embrasure An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...

s, dripstones, water tables, plinths

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wa ...

s) from the local area - Stránská skála quarry –

crinoid Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which are ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

. The building has an inside length of 67,45 metres (38 moravian

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. ...

s), width 28,4 metres (16 moravian fathoms) and a height to the ceiling of 23.07 metres. Transept 40 m. Building as typical Cistercian churches have no tower, only one small flèche (spire) - on the crossing of central nave and

. The layout of the basilica consists of one nave and two

s, with the transept crossing the nave and aisles. South side of the transept have now an entrance.

Notable individuals

* Elizabeth Richeza - Queen *

John of Bohemia John the Blind or John of Luxembourg ( lb, Jang de Blannen; german: link=no, Johann der Blinde; cz, Jan Lucemburský; 10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346), was the Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King o ...

- King and cofounder *

Henry of Lipá Henry of Lipá (Czech: ''Jindřich z Lipé''; died 26 August 1329) was a prominent Czech nobleman, marshal, and powerful magnate in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Biography Henry was born to the prominent Ronovci family, though the date of his birth ...

- Governor and Magnate, cofounder *

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was ...

- Abbot and scientistMendel: ''The Man, The Monk, The Scientist'', Anderson Eric, and Anderson Nancy, MD magazine, June 04 2012
/ref> *

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...

- Composer * František Klácel - Priest * Francis Thomas Bratranek - Priest and

Cracow University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Pavel Křížkovský Pavel Křížkovský (born as Karel Křížkovský) (9 January 1820, Kreuzendorf – 8 May 1885, Brno) was a Czech choral composer and conductor. Life Křížkovský was born in Kreuzendorf, Austrian Silesia. He was a chorister in a monaster ...

- Composer and friar

Gallery

File:Bazilika Virgin Mary Brno.jpg, The High altar erectet 1736 File:Basilika minor.JPG, View from the nearby

square to the north west File:Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady in Brno.jpg, At night, from Abbatial Yard to the south; artificial light highlights the

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es File:Bazilica Old Brno.jpg, South part of the

- The

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window' ...

. File:Vitrážové okno.jpg, Big rose window File:Starobrněnský klášter kostel 1.jpg, Body of the basilica from the north - (from The "Yellow hill") File:Basilica minor in Old Brno Abbey -Transept.jpg, One of the chapels. File:Bazilica of The Assumption, Brno.jpg, The giant Menorah - unknown origin (15th C.) File:BrnoBazilika.jpg, Exterior 19th century graphic File:Starobrněnský klášter 3.jpg, Whole complex of Abbey buildings File:Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, Brno.jpg, Papal baner File:Brno, Bazilika Nanebevzetí Panny Marie 01.jpg, Aerial view from the Spilberk Castle File:Bazilika Nanebevzetí Panny Marie (Brno).JPG, South east view File:Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, Abbatial church, Brno.jpg, Simple tomb of Queen Elizabeth Richeza of

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

and Polonia

Services

Regular religious services in the Basilic are: *Sunday 07:30 Mass, 09:00 Mass, 11:00 Mass *Tuesday 18:00 Mass *Wednesday 18:00 Mass *Thursday 18:00 Mass *Friday 18:00 Mass *Saturday 08:00 Mass

Transport

References

External links

Abbey home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bazilika Nanebevzeti Panny Marie (Brno) Basilica churches in the Czech Republic Churches in Brno Cistercian Order Gothic architecture in the Czech Republic Cistercian monasteries in the Czech Republic 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the Czech Republic National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic 1320s establishments in Europe 1323 in Europe