The island will complete the renovation of St. Anne's chapel, and is preparing an interactive exhibition inside

Ostrov - The renovation of the St. Anna funeral chapel in the monastery area in Ostrov, Karlovy Vary Region, will be completed in the spring. An interactive video mapping exhibition is to be presented to the public, said mayor Pavel Čekan (independent, elected by the Local party) to ČTK. The city will also repair the area around the Einsiedeln Chapel this year, with the help of a grant from the Ministry of Culture.

"In the first phase, we did external work in 2023, mainly repairs and painting of the facade. In 2024, the second phase began working on the interiors, but it was not resolved how many outlets would be needed, how the electrical installation would be routed, and so on. Therefore, the repairs were delayed last year," described the mayor. Last year, due to this, the city missed out on a grant of 350,000 crowns from the Ministry of Culture for the restoration of monuments in municipal conservation zones. However, the city applied for the grant again this year and wants to cover part of the reconstruction costs, totaling around one million crowns, from it. It should be finished in April.

According to Čekan, the exhibition in the St. Anna chapel previously functioned with a guide presenting its history to visitors. "A couple of years ago, the idea of a virtual exhibition started to be considered. Using mapping, the story capturing its history could be projected in the chapel. We estimate the installation of technology and lighting, software acquisition, and the actual processing of the story at three million crowns," added the mayor. The chapel, as a funeral mausoleum of the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg and the Margraves of Baden, will be presented in accordance with its sacred character as a significant spiritual space. According to the city leadership's plan, a calm, quiet place will be created there, whose mystery would be highlighted by dim lighting with a backdrop of baroque music.

Renovation of the entrance to the Einsiedeln Chapel is also planned in the monastery area, for which the city would also use grant funds. Ostrov has received 1.25 million crowns for this year, which must be used for the restoration of heritage sites. The grant is further conditioned on signing a contract with the contractor by the first decade of April and completion and accounting by September at the latest.

The St. Anna funeral chapel is the oldest known early baroque central chapel in the Czech Republic, following classical works of the Italian Renaissance. It has an octagonal floor plan, and its cornerstone was laid in 1644 by Duke Julius Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg; it was completed in 1663. Two years later, the duke was buried in this chapel as the first of his family. The chapel faced the threat of destruction at the beginning of the 21st century; today, it is accessible to visitors, along with the funeral crypt, after a complete reconstruction of the monastery complex – the Sacred District, which took place from 2001 to 2007.