Work at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Předklášteří will conclude in the middle of the year

Předklášteří - The complete restoration of the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Předklášteří, which has been ongoing for several years, will conclude in the middle of this year. The exterior repairs are already complete, and restorers have been working on the interiors since last year. They are currently finishing the work on the main altar, said Tišnov dean Josef Rybecký. The total cost of the work will be nearly 47 million crowns.

"At the moment, the main altar is under scaffolding; we still have restoration work to do on the pulpit and the baptismal font. However, services have been held in the church since Easter," Rybecký stated.

The Roman Catholic parish of Předklášteří received a grant in 2017 for the restoration of the early Gothic parish church, which is part of the monument-protected monastery complex Porta coeli. The work on repairing the roof structure, restoring the façade, completely renovating the electrical installation, repairing and supplementing the lighting, and modifying the immediate surroundings, including the construction of a connection to the sewage system, has already been completed. Restoration work in the church's interior is now ongoing. Of the total price of 46.9 million crowns, a European grant from the Integrated Regional Operational Programme will cover 44.59 million crowns.

"The entire project, including administration, must be completed by the end of this year, while the actual work should finish around the middle of the year. The project also includes the digitalization of the church, whether in the form of a virtual tour or 3D recording; we are still determining the specific format," Rybecký added.

"It was necessary to restore the artificial marbles and stone pillars, to supplement missing parts such as fingers or feet. Everything needed to be reinforced. We had to dismantle the gilded wooden carvings, repair them in the workshop, supplement broken parts, and gild them," said Petr Kuchyňa from the Pastiglia company. Restorers are now gradually returning 1,500 gilded wooden parts to the altar. Once the top of the altar is installed, part of the scaffolding will need to be dismantled to return the main painting to its place. The main altar is dominated by a six-meter-high painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by the Austrian painter Franz Anton Maulbertsch. The restoration company Pastiglia is working on it in their workshop.

The parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is an early Gothic building with a so-called retreating portal in the style of French Gothic, which is unique in the Czech lands. It was built between 1233 and 1240. The interior of the church is furnished in the spirit of late Baroque.