Horní Jiřetín: HELP US SAVE THE BAROQUE CHURCH OF THE FRENCH ARCHITECT JEAN BAPTISTE MATHEY IN THE HORNÍ JIŘETÍN

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA, Professor of history of architecture and a fighter for the rescue of the artistic heritage, prepares - together with other experts from the universities in Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc, České Budějovice, Ústí nad Labem and Opava – a special conference which should point out the historical and artistic value of the baroque church in the Horní Jiřetín by the architect Jean Baptiste Mathey.

If the Government of the Czech Republic authorizes coal mining at this location, the danger of total destruction of the monument is imminent.

The experts will meet in the Horní Jiřetín 28 March and they want to draw attention of the international public, in the first place of the French as Mathey came from Burgundy.

STAVITELE KATEDÁL: Really threatens that if the mining limits of the brown coal mining in the Podkrušnohoří (The Ore Mountains Foothillls) are broken, the baroque church in the Horní Jiřetín will go to nothing? Couldn´t the problem be solved the same way as fifty years ago in Most, when because of coal mining the famous late gothic church by architect Jakub Heilmann was moved about a kilometer further?

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA: Due to the terrain, the transfer of the Jiřetín church would be technically much more complicated than the transfer of the church in Most. I am not even sure if such solution might be under consideration. Rather, I think that politicians might lament how expensive it would be and gamble on a demolition. And it would be a tragedy not only for the church, but also to all people who live in the vicinity and do not want to move. We are preparing an offensive to rescue the Horní Jiřetín and we want to address also the international public.

STAVITELE KATEDÁL: How numerous are such architectural works of Mathey in the world?

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA: Withou exaggeration, Mathey can be considered the most important architect active in Bohemia in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. He is the author of the St. Francis´ Church near the Charles Bridge in Prague, and the Chateau Troja. In the church in the Horní Jiřetín Mathey apparently tried to define the type of a church for the rural community, which means that he tried to solve the architectural task common in Bohemia only in the eighteenth century.

STAVITELE KATEDÁL: The Mathey´s church is protected as a cultural monument since 1958. What it really means?

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA: Current situation in the Czech Republic is so harsh and sometimes even brutal, that even the  cultural heritage status does not guarantee that the building will survive.

STAVITELE KATEDÁL: Don´t you sometimes have the impression that the protests of experts are good for nothing? That money wins everywhere?

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA: Actions to save the monuments are not in vain. Sometime they succeed to mobilize the public in such way that even the rough entrepreneurs get frightened and shrink back. Also the authorities are more cautious, even if they usually smooth the way for the entrepreneurs. Strong pressure on entrepreneurs that was not wasted succeeded e.g. in the case of  the Kyselka Spa near Karlovy Vary.

STAVITELE KATEDÁL: Does the Heritage Monuments Act protect the monuments sufficiently? As an example we might mention the case of the house on the Wenceslas Square in Prague.

ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA: The house on the corner of the Wenceslas Square and Opletalová Street remains vulnerable also because it did not have the status of  the cultural heritage, and the Ministry of Culture recently refused to declare it a monument. Behaviour of the Ministry of Culture in such cases related to monuments I consider as scandalous.

Prof. Dr. ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA:

The baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the city of Horní Jiřetín was built in 1694-1700 by the Prague Archbishop Jan Bedřich of Valdštejn (Johann Friedrich von Wallenstein) (1644-1694) on his personal estate Duchcov and Livínov  whose part the Horní Jiřetín formed. The refined architecture of the church represented the Archbishop´s high position in the church administration of Bohemia and his respectable position among Czech aristocrats.

The Archbishop has been famous as a fighter for the rights of the Catholic Church – just in time of the foundation of the church in Jiřetín he got into a sharp conflict with the Bohemian Provincial Assembly, and even with the Emperor Leopold I. In the same time he concentrated on the reconstruction of the church administration or the parochial systém in Bohemia disorganized during the Reformation and the Thirty Years War. By taking care of the parishes and parish churches on his personal estate – Litvínov and Horní Jiřetín – he probably wanted to give a good example to other Czech aristocrats.

The church in the Horní Jiřetín (1694-1700), as well as the somewhat older church of  St. Michael in Litvínov (1685-1694) was designed for the Archbishop Valdštejn  by Jean Baptiste Mathey (1630-1696), architect of French origin, trained in Rome where Valdštejn met him.

Among the best known buildings by Mathey are the Church of  St. Francis Seraph near the Charles Bridge in Prague (1679-1688), the construction with the first large dome in Bohemia, initiated again by the Archbishop Valdštejn as a Grand Master of  the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, the Chateau or Villa Troja in the Prague district of the same name, built in 1678-1695 by  Count Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk  (Sternberg), or the Prague Castle Riding School established in 1694-1696 for training of young Czech aristocrats on initiative of the President of the Bohemian Chamber, Count František Josef Šlik (Schlick).

Mathey introduced to Bohemia ideas of the current Roman architecture of  the moderate, non-dynamic baroque style for which the professional literature promotes the concept Roman academism. In this style he also conceived his works designed for the countryside including the churches in Litvínov and the Horní Jiřetín.

Neither Archbishop Valdštejn, founder of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Horní Jiřetín, nor his architect Jean Baptiste Mathey, did not live to see its completion . However, since the church remained after the Archbishop´s untimely death – he died at his Chateau in Duchcov to smallpox – in the property of the House of Valdštejn, the Archbishop´s heirs saw to its high quality equipment with altars, statues and furniture.

The remarkable wood carving works from 1719-1735 decorating the church are works of  the sculptor Jan Adam Dietz (1671-1742) whose workshop was situated at the near-by castle Jezeří.

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