Church of Our Lady before Týn

The Church of Our Lady before Týn (Kostel Matky Boží před Týnem), also called the Týn Church, is a Gothic three-aisled church in the Old Town of Prague.^[1] The Heritage Catalogue of the National Heritage Institute lists it as the Church of the Mother of God before Týn.^[2] It stands between Old Town Square and Týnská, Štupartská and Celetná streets.^[3] It is the main church of the Old Town.^[2]*

History

The originally Romanesque, later Early Gothic church was rebuilt in the last third of the 14th and the early 15th century. The workshop of Peter Parler, builder of St Vitus Cathedral, took part in the construction.^[1][3] By the 1380s the side aisles, the walls of the nave and the choir were completed. The roof truss over the nave was raised after 1457 and the west gable was completed by 1463.^[2] The upper parts of the towers were completed in the second half of the 15th and the early 16th century.^[1] After a fire in 1679 the nave received a new, lower Baroque vault.^[2][3] On 29 July 1819 lightning struck the north tower and the fire destroyed a bell. The tower was provisionally repaired in 1825 and its upper part ten years later.^[1]

Architecture

The church is a three-aisled basilica with three choirs at the east end and a pair of towers at the west end.^[2] The towers are 80 m high, the southern one visibly wider.^[1] The entrance portal is on the north side, a position determined by the surrounding buildings. The tympanum of the north portal shows reliefs of the Passion and the Crucifixion.^[2] A statue of the Virgin Mary stands in the gable of the west front.^[2]

Bells

The south tower holds the bell Marie, cast in 1553 by Tomáš Jaroš and weighing 6,450 kg. In 1992 a 960 kg bell dedicated to the Pietà and St Agnes of Bohemia, cast in the Manoušek family workshop in Zbraslav, was hung in the north tower. 189 steps lead up through the south tower.^[1]

Tomb of Tycho Brahe

The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), who worked at the court of Rudolf II, is buried in the church. His marble epitaph is on a pillar by the tomb.^[3] His remains were first exhumed in 1901. During a later Czech-Danish investigation into the cause of the astronomer's death, archaeologists reopened the tomb and lifted the tin coffin dating from 1901.^[4]

Heritage protection

The church is a national cultural monument. The Heritage Catalogue of the National Heritage Institute lists it as a cultural monument since 1958.^[2]

Sources

1. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy (Praha virtuální)
2. Národní památkový ústav (Památkový katalog)
3. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy (Praha virtuální)
4. Novinky.cz