St. Maurice Church, Olomouc, Czech Republic

St. Maurice Church is one the most precious buildings of the late Gothic style in Moravia. The three-naved structure has a cross vaulting dating from the middle of the 14th century. A more advanced net vault may be seen in the presbytery.

Two asymmetric prismatic towers were built on the western facade. In the western part of the church there is a unique double spiral staircase.

The real gem is the late Gothic sculpture of the 15th century, Christ on the Mount of Olives, located in the interior.

On the northern wall of the church, there is the Renaissance burial chapel of the Edelmann family. After a fire in 1709, the interior was redecorated in the Baroque style; Loretta Chapel and All Souls Chapel were added. Painters Jan Kryštof Handke, Karel Josef Haringer and Karel Moravec and sculptors Filip Sattler, Jan Sturmer and Jiří Antonín Heinz took part in the Baroque adaptations of the interior.

Maurice‘s organ, the largest organ in Central Europe and the eighth largest in Europe, were made by Master Michael Engler in 1745. It was decorated by the sculptor Philip Sattler and the wood-carver Jan Jiří Huckh. The original Baroque instrument with three keyboards underwent a renovation in the sixties of the 20th century.At that time a modern instrument was added, with 5 keyboards. Now the organ has 135 registers and 10,400 pipes.

In the mid 19th century, the church was equipped with new historicist furniture and underwent re-gothization in the years 1869-1908. The main altar is decorated with a Neo-Gothic retable from the mid 19th century.

References:

Olomouc Tourism

User Reviews

Expat (4 months ago)
The church was under repair the last four times I visited Olomouc. Finally, on my fifth visit, I was able to enter. The interior is serene and beautiful.

Jiri Baros (2 years ago)
Nice and big church, needs some restorations outside. Extraordinary organ.

andreea monica (2 years ago)
Gothic church. The sound of the chore was very nice. Very cold inside.

Maiko Shintani (3 years ago)
Beautiful church. We went not only the inside of it but also the tower. You can go up all the way up to the roof and see beautiful view of the city. I think it's one of good places to take an overview of the city. Although, the stairs looked half way collapsed from the middle. When we reached the top, it looked like closed because of a door-ish thing that is probably set to prevent rain coming inside of the tower but you can just push it to reach the top of the tower.

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