Chomutov is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region whose historic centre is associated with the commandery of the Teutonic Order, later a chateau and town hall.
Chomutov is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region. According to the official website of the town, Visit Chomutov, a tour of its historic centre leads through roughly eight hundred years of history, in which knights of a religious order, a Hussite invasion, noble families, religious conflicts and burgher wealth succeed one another.[1]
Town hall and the former commandery
In the first half of the 13th century the manor of the Načerat family with a church stood on the site of today's town hall. In 1252 the town was acquired by the Teutonic Order, which had the manor rebuilt into a commandery. It was among the most splendid in Bohemia and drew on the commanderies in the order's towns in the Baltic. It occupied the south-western part of the town and was separated from it by a wall with a moat. The dominant feature was the Church of St Catherine, and at right angles to it adjoined an early Gothic conventual house, where the provincial commander and the commander of Chomutov resided and where the brothers' shared rooms were also located. The complex also included farm buildings with stables, granaries, barns, a smithy and cowsheds.[1]
In 1411 King Wenceslaus IV acquired the commandery and the town. During the 15th century it served as the seat of various owners of Chomutov. Towards the end of the century Beneš of Veitmile began to rebuild it into a lord's residence modelled on the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen, and his son Šebestián completed it in the 1520s and 1530s. The residence was fortified with a new thick wall, and a massive structure, later called the castle bastion, was set into its south-western corner.[1] After the catastrophic fire of the town in 1525, Šebestián of Veitmile rebuilt the residence into a Renaissance chateau, whose decoration consisted of terracotta elements after northern Italian models.[1]
In 1605 the town bought itself out of serfdom and the chateau began to serve as a town hall. During the reconstruction in 1846 the Renaissance entrance portal and the terracotta decoration disappeared, and in 1946–1947 the west wing was demolished. Today the historic building is used by the Chomutov municipal authority, the Oblastní muzeum v Chomutově and the Art gallery.[1]
Church of St Catherine
The church was created by rebuilding an older church that belonged to the manor of Bedřich of Chomutov. In the second half of the 13th century the Teutonic Order replaced the original smaller presbytery with a flat end by a larger High Gothic one. The church served as the order's chapel until 1411, and at the end of the 15th century it became the private chapel of the Veitmile family.[1] While the town was held by the Hasištejnský of Lobkowicz family in the second half of the 16th century, a family tomb and two oratories were added to the floor of the presbytery, and remains of Renaissance frescoes also date from that time.[1]
After the town gained its freedom in 1605, the church became in the 17th century a town hall chapel under the administration of the Jesuits. After the dissolution of the order in 1773 it passed into private ownership and was deconsecrated. Floors were fitted inside and it served as a warehouse. The building gradually fell into decay, and from the 1930s a number of plans for its repair were made, but none was carried out.[1]