The Cathedral of St. Bartholomew (), originally the Church of St. Bartholomew, is a Gothic church located on the Main Square in Plzeň, Czech Republic. It was probably established together with the city around the year 1295. The church became a cathedral in 1993, when the Plzeň diocese was created. It was designated a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic in 1995.
The History of the church/cathedral.
The Cathedral of St. Bartholomew was established probably simultaneously with the city of Plzen around the year 1295. Originally, it was only an affiliated branch of the , which is a part of the Roudná neighbourhood. The patron of both churches was the Czech king; in 1310 the King Henry of Bohemia (1265–1335) bestowed the patronal right upon the Teutonic Order. However, the same year, the king was banished from the Czech country and the Order didn't dare to take hold of their right. The Teutonic Order finally enforced this right from John of Bohemia (1296–1346) in 1322. However, next problem arose with the conflict over a presbytery with the Church of All Saints, resulting in favour of the Teutonic Order in 1342. The takeover of the clergy houses therefore probably became the motive for the initiation of the church construction. The Teutonic Order remained its patron until 1546, when the city of Plzeň got the abovementioned patronal right. The Diecese of Plzeň was established by Pope John Paul II on 31 May 1993, and then the parish church became a cathedral, the urban church of the bishop.
The Origin of the church.
The exact date of the start of its construction is not known, but the oldest extant allusion comes from the year 1307, when the townsman Wolfram Zwinillinger bequeathed the malt and drying factory to St. Bartholomew with the condition of serving a church mass on behalf of his soul. Therefore, it could be estimated that the church could have been established approximately around the same year as the city of Plzeň - shortly after 1295. However, it is not known where it stood. The placement of the church on a public market place was a very unusual solution. The construction of the church started with the presbytery after 1342. The presbytery seems shorter in comparison to usual proportions of a typical presbytery. This is caused by its partial destruction during the construction of the nave and side aisles. The presbytery reached up to the first pair of pillars in the nave and therefore the size of the presbytery had to be adjusted. The pillars were supposed to be shorter, which was changed after the 1360s, mainly because the presbytery was enlarged.
The main nave and side aisles were being constructed since approximately 1375. First, the double-tower frontage was established and then it continued towards the already standing presbytery. The plan was to build two towers, the northern and the southern, out of which the southern was never finished.
The sacristy was constructed on the northern side of the presbytery together with the tower. The walls of the nave and side aisles were fully built until the beginning of the Hussite Wars (around the 1420s). The height of the northern tower did not exceed the height of the cornice. The church was roofed only with a frame shaped into a tall tent roof, with a tower for smaller bells. This enabled the usage of the church even before it was finished.
The era after the Hussite Wars.
The construction of the church continued after the Hussite Wars. The side portals were built up at the beginning of the 15th century. After 1476, the nave and side aisles were roofed with net vaults on circular supports. The architect, who was probably Mister Erhard Bauer from Eichstätt (15. century in Eichstätt – 1493) changed the original plan because the pillars were designed to be cornered. At this time, the construction of the southern tower was already being dropped out, because it was against the aesthetic opinions of the era. Subsequently, the nave and side aisles were roofed with a tented roof, culminating into a small tower, which was just a little smaller than the future northern tower (it was still under construction at the time).
The Sternberg Chapel, an important part of the church, was added to the southern part of the presbytery in the 1470s and 1480s. It was supposed to serve as a funerary chapel of the Sternberg family. The author was Hans Spiess (died 1503), working for the king Vladislaus II on a close castle Křivoklá at the time. In 1472 Jaroslav of Sternberg (1220–1287) was buried in the church, probably in the just finished chapel. In the same year, the ante-room was added to the southern portal with the details of the decoration consistent with the decoration of the chapel.
A vast fire destroyed Plzeň in 1525 and the roof frame of the church burned down. Subsequently, in 1528, the tent roof was replaced with a saddle roof, which remained until today. The northern ante-room was added in first third of the 16th century, in a little less decorative manner than the Sternberg Chapel and southern ante-room. The Renaissance dormers were built in 1580.
18th century until today.
19th century.
In the second half of the 18th century, the organ-loft was extended. On 6 February 1835, a thunderbolt caused a fire on the northern tower. Two years later, the tower was newly roofed under the supervision of the builder František Filous (*1799-1869) – it was only a simplified copy of the original post-gothic roof.
In 1870, as a result of a windstorm, the eastern gable fell down onto the presbytery and the Sternberg Chapel - it threw off the dome together with the keystone. The reconstruction lead the architect Josef Mocker (1835-1899) in 1879-1883 – he was a specialist for the purist reconstructions and influenced Czech gothic purism with his work in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Beside the repair of the presbytery vault, he replaced the main old baroque altar with a new one, designed by himself, which was typical for the era. He removed old renaissance dormers from the roofs and more than 24 mostly baroque altars from the interior.
20th century.
In 1914–1920 a vast restoration of the church and the Sternberg Chapel took place under supervision of the architect (1869–1933), who was also responsible for finishing the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The last reconstruction of the church up till now happened in 1987. The project for static securing of the church and the tower and also the repair of the roof cloak was made by the architect Šantavý.
Location and architectural description.
Location.
The church is located on the northern side of the square, which is quite an unusual placing with regard to the era. In most of the planned established cities (not only in the western Czech Republic) the church was placed outside the square, next to the city rampart. The main reason for this was a much calmer and quieter atmosphere than the city market.
Architectural description.
General description.
The temple is designed as a hall church with main nave and two side aisles, with four bays and a two-tower bays on the western side. On the west is located the presbytery with two dome bays, closed on a polygonal with five sides of a dodecagon. The church is accessible with the main entrance in the western frontage, and with two side entrances with ante-rooms on the northern and southern side of the church. The sacristy is connected to the presbytery on the north, together with a palatal depository. On the southern side from the presbytery is situated the Sternberg Chapel.
The cathedral is 58 m long, 30 m wide and 25 m tall. The church tower is 103 m tall and it is the tallest church tower in the Czech Republic.
Exterior.
The lining materials of the cathedral are hewn sandstone blocks, originating from the stone quarries to the north from the historical core. The masonry is encircled by a plinth around the whole perimeter and ends with a moulding in the upper part.
The western frontage was originally established as a two-tower one. The towers were supposed to be supported by vigorous pillars, reaching up to the cornices of both towers. Ultimately, this happened only on the realized northern tower. In case of the unfinished southern tower, the pillars are ending right under the cornice carrying the roof, in contrast to the supporting pillars of the walls, which are terminating a little lower. In the floor plan, the pillars are graduated once, in the height of 16 m. On the southern tower are represented the same palatal cornices found on the northern tower. The ground windows are pointed and windows in the upper floors are rectangular. The windows next to the bell stool are again pointed. Above them, the clock is located.
In the middle part of the western frontage is located a Gothic spiky portal with a glass tympanum, the outer archivolt of the portal is encircled by crockets, culminating in a finial. The linings of the portal were used for placing the statues of Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, who together with Christ on the cross created the group "Crucifixion". Between the portal and the floor cornice is located the niche with the baroque statue of the Saint Bartholomew. Above the portal there is a pointed window with a neo-gothic tracery. The simple gable on the middle nave can also be included into the western frontage.
On the side frontages, northern and southern, we can find only slight differences – they are very similar to the other frontages. On the western corner, there are supporting pillars of the tower and the frontages are then divided into five fields by other pillars. The first field next to the western corner is solved in the same manner as the western two-tower frontage. The other fields contain pointed windows, which are divided into four parts in the second and fifth field, similar for both frontages. In the third field on the southern side there is a seven-part window. On the northern side, there is a six-part window. In the fourth field, the number of parts is again different – on the south the window is a four-part one, on the north a two-part one. In the linings of all the windows we can find deep cavettos. The traceries are mostly Rayonnant, Spherical and Cloverleafed.
Although the side portals are nowadays located in the interior of the ante-rooms, they were originally designed as the parts of the frontage, and that is why it is important to describe them together with the frontages. The southern portal is richer than the northern one, because it used to be opened into a greater area of the square. Therefore, the decorativeness of this part was much more important. The individual rods of the pointed lining jut out of small plinths. The lining continuously continues into a square bordering. Crocket is used as a decoration for both archivolts and the bordering. The northern portal is designed in a very similar manner.
Both portals were provided with ante-rooms between 15th and 16th century. The ante-room in the southern part of the church has a pentagonal floor-plan with a pinnacle on the corner, decorated with an effigy on the bottom (probably the self-portrait of the builder Hans Spiess). The visitor enters the ante room through two pointed portals with linings shaped into torus and cavettos. Above the square door openings there are lintels. On the walls of the ante-room there is a segmentation similar to the one used on the Sternberg Chapel. The ante-room on the northern side has a rectangular floor plan reaching slightly over the border of the pillars. The entrances have profiled linings, whose rods jut out of plinths. Above the cornice there is an attic, whose battlement shape enables water runoff. The ante-room is roofed with a shed roof with a gable dormer.
The presbytery of the church is quite small in comparison to the size of the church. Its masonry is encircled by a plinth culminating into a window-sill cornice. The windows of the presbytery are divided into two parts, except for the axial window, which is a three-part one. Their traceries are quite similar, the main motif is a spherical triangle, for example in case of the middle window decorated with double or triple leaves. Two windows on