Church of St. James (Brno)

The St. Jacob's Church ( Kostel sv. Jakuba ) on the Jakobs-Platz in Brno is the most important late Gothic building in the city. The medieval town church is still the Catholic parish church downtown community.

History and Architecture

The first written record comes from the year 1228. Built the beginning of the 13th century Romanesque church, which served mainly colonists from Germany and Flanders in celebration of their worship, was the participation of Anton Pilgram in the years 1510 to 1511 by a three-aisled hall replaced and completed in 1592 as a city church. The eastern chancel was covered by the Pilgram - building workshop before the outbreak of the Hussite wars with a net vault. The steeple of Antonio Gabrielle stands 92 meters in height and was covered in 1592. 1750-1766 the interior of the church was in the Baroque style. Between 1871 and 1879, the interior was remodeled in the Neo-Gothic style by the Viennese architect Heinrich von Ferstel. In the 1960s, changes were made according to the proposal by Bohuslav Fuchs. In 1995 the church was declared a national cultural monument.

Equipment

• Neo-Gothic main altar
• Marble altars, 1750-1766
• Gothic crucifix
• Pulpit, 1669
• Choir stalls, 1700
• Reliefs ( Crucifixion, Lamentation of Christ ), 1518
• Tomb of Ludwig Raduit, the defender of Brno against the Swedes, by Z. dungeon, 1722
• Organ from Jacob Ryschak from Opava, 1692

Environment

Until the Josephine reforms in 1784, which ordered the closure of all cemeteries in the city for hygienic reasons, was located around the church, a cemetery and several chapels; only then was what we today place and the chapels were gradually dismantled. Excavations in recent years the so-called Golden fountain, which was already mentioned in 1358, was discovered. In the church wall was discovered an underground charnel house from the turn of the 17th and 18th century, believed to be the second largest in Europe. For 2012, it is planned to make this publicly available.