The Diocesan Museum in Brno is organizing an exhibition about the church in Křtiny

Brno - The Church of the Name of the Virgin Mary in Křtiny, located in the Blanenska region, and its creator - the Baroque builder Jan Blažej Santini - is featured in an exhibition at the Brno Diocesan Museum starting today. The Křtiny church received the nickname Pearl of Moravia shortly after its establishment due to the builder, said museum director Karel Rechlík to ČTK. The exhibition is held to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary of Křtiny this year.
    The church stands in the place where, according to legend, Saints Cyril and Methodius baptized the first Christians. Its main altar is adorned with a two-meter tall stone statue of the Virgin Mary, found in 1210 near Křtiny. It is attributed with dozens of various miracles.
    When Santini was commissioned to build the Křtiny church, he decided to give it the layout of a Greek cross. "Santini infused even more symbolism into the object. This is also presented in the exhibition," stated Rechlík.
    A unique feature of the exhibition is a copy of the original building plan for the church. The original was burned. The project shows that the right part of the church was not built. The interior of the church is richly decorated with frescoes.
    Beneath it are intricate corridors, some of which have not yet been discovered. In part of them, a charnel house was found, as well as mysterious skulls painted with laurel wreaths featuring the letter T. According to some theories, these belonged to members of a defunct mysterious spiritist Brotherhood of Fire.
    The exhibition features not only one of the skulls but also a Baroque Marian insignia from Křtiny, which is used in processions, ornately decorated candles from the 18th century, and historical photographs of Křtiny.
    Their significance is also evidenced by the fact that they were already mentioned in 1663 in the publication Atlas Marianus, which mapped the most famous places in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

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