The Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady stands in Sedlec, a part of Kutná Hora. It is a former church of a Cistercian monastery and, according to the Sedlec heritage site, still a functioning parish church.[1] Together with the historic centre of Kutná Hora and the Church of St Barbara, it has been on the World Heritage List since 1995.[1][2]
The monastery and the first church
The founding of the Sedlec monastery is linked to the arrival of twelve Cistercians from Waldsassen in Bavaria, which took place sometime after 1142. The founding charter was drawn up around 1145, and a facsimile of it is on display in the cathedral's treasury. Between 1142 and 1148, the original Romanesque church was built on the site of today's cathedral; part of its foundations was uncovered during a reconstruction in 2008.[1] The National Heritage Institute lists the Sedlec monastery among the notable sites of Kutná Hora and dates its founding to the mid-12th century.[2]
The Gothic building and its destruction
According to the Sedlec heritage site, the Gothic cathedral was built over the course of thirty years around the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. On the night of 24–25 April 1421, the Hussites burned down the monastery: the monks perished, the monastery was plundered and the cathedral was set on fire. Life returned to Sedlec in the first half of the 16th century, and the ruined cathedral waited nearly three hundred years for restoration. Even so, the surviving remains amazed visitors with their grandeur, earning the cathedral the nickname Splendissima Basilica.[1]
Santini's restoration
The restoration was designed by the architect Jan Blažej Santini Aichel. He preserved the simple Gothic lines and combined them with elements of ornate Baroque, a style the Sedlec heritage site calls Baroque Gothic. According to the National Heritage Institute, Santini also designed a new vault during the restoration.[1][2] It was precisely for this combination of styles that, according to the Sedlec heritage site, it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1995.[1]
Decoration
The interior displays Baroque paintings from the early 18th century. Two of them, The Burning of the Sedlec Monastery and The Martyrdom of St Philip and St James, were painted by Michael Leopold Willmann (1630–1706). According to the guidebook, he learned painting from his father, travelled to the Netherlands around 1650, and to Poland around 1660. There he converted to Catholicism and spent most of his life at a monastery in Lubusz. He worked for Sedlec only late in life, after meeting Abbot Jindřich Snopek.[1]
Practical information
According to the Sedlec heritage site, tickets can only be purchased online or at the Sedlec Information Centre on Zámecká Street 279; current opening hours and any special restrictions are listed on that site.[1]