Kostel sv. Rodiny v Českých Budějovicích

Zprávy památkové péče 2013, 73(2):117-125

Church of the Holy Family in České Budějovice

Jiří Černý

In České Budějovice, the rehabilitation of the Neo-gothic Church of the Holy Family has been underway from 2012; the church was cleared out in 1968 and used as a depository of the archives of the Ministry of the Interior (State Regional Archive in Třeboň). In the future, the church is to serve as a "spiritual space" especially for high school students of the adjacent Bishopric Gymnasium of Jan Neumann, located in the former building of the Rearing Institute and orphanage of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo. The Borromeo nuns, during the hundred years of their activities in České Budějovice (until 1950, when they were expelled), built two large complexes of buildings in the city with their own shrines. The Church of the Holy Family at the orphanage, founded in 1868, was built in 1886-1888 on order of the congregation based on the vision of S. M. Filiberta Františka Wotrubová. The building plans were drawn up, and the work was conducted by local builder Jakub Stabernak based on the plans of a Belgian Beuron monk P. Ghislain de Bethune (1855-1922), who just a few years previous had designed the Neo-gothic church of Sacré Coeur in Prague's Smíchov. The interiors of both churches had the same layout and murals with the same pattern on their triumphal arch (the original painting in the České Budějovice church is now covered over by paintings from 1928). The furnishings of the Church of the Holy Family have been preserved only partially in depositories; except for the altarpiece of the Holy Family from Jan Heřman and two statues of the Apostles, a mechanical nativity scene has also been preserved which, after the secularization of the church, was given to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. Also noteworthy is the mural in the hall of the church called "Jerusalem" by painter Jan Řehoř from 1888 and 1900, which shows the Holy City. Its effect was previously compounded by the monumental carving of the Crucifixion, which is now missing. The Church of the Holy Family in České Budějovice, in terms of heritage and art, is not only a valuable record of historicism in sacral architecture, but is also one of the few monuments connected with the period of Beuron art in the Czech lands.