Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord

The Church of the Sacred Heart of the Lord (Czech: Kostel Nejsvětějšího srdce Páně ) is a Roman Catholic church in the Prague district of Vinohrady. It was built from 1928 to 1932 after plans by the architect Jože Plečnik.

Design

The leaders of the Prague suburb in which there were two parishes and a church in 1919 turned to Plečnik to build another church. This rejected the project for the time being. After further discussions agreed Plečnik, and put some 1921 proposals, which haunted a contentious question of location. The six-year plan of the church turned out to be as difficult as the building of the Vienna Holy Spirit Church. The first planning phase of the specific request of the Building Committee for a monumental parish center. Plečnik design pointed outwards no particular resemblance to an ancient temple more. Large arches gave a clear view into the core of the building, and a rich decoration with figures of saints was provided. The roof band he wanted to decorate with an antique band ornament. The 25 - meter high church should dominate the building block with schools, parsonage and rental houses. This variant was interrupted due to lack of money and the unclear land situation.

There followed various versions up to 1925 then an interesting project arose. The church is significantly lower than the previous designs, has an unusually wide bell tower and, unlike in the Vienna Holy Spirit Church, no height break at the junction of the nave to the chancel. The basic pattern Plečnik chose the square for the coffered ceiling and the circle for the terrazzo floor.

To admire the monumental church, he put the church in the center of the square, and placed the church almost wide bell tower between nave and sacristy. The tower height is the length of the nave.

Execution

Since the foundations were performed significantly more expensive than planned, simplified Plečnik to save costs, the ornamentation in the upper part of the facade, renounced costly figures of angels and replaced the originally planned stone portal and window frames by cheap, white plaster. The opposite large round window ( from the outside is in the clock tower can be seen ), with whom he broke through the wall until the last variant, are like a Cyclops eye against the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Prague, St. Vitus Cathedral in the middle of Prague Castle, directed.

The large and bright nave is the counterpart to the relatively small crypt. The finished under construction since 1930, the church was consecrated in May of 1932, although she was still inside almost completely empty. The main altar was finished except for some details in 1939. With the facade sculptures and the equipment of the crypt and the Sacristy was begun during the Second World War, but was never completely finished the church.