Vault of Bethlehem

The vault of Bethlehem is a neogothic church in the Old city of Prague whose history is closely related to the Histoire of Prague and with that of the country. It is especially famous to have been the place of the sermons of Jan Hus against the abuses the Catholic church in general and that of the Indulgence S in particular.

Construction

The vault of Bethlehem is established by an act of the signed May 24th, 1391 of Hanuš de Mühlheim and Jan Kříž (homonymous, to some extent, of Jean of the Cross). The vault is intended exclusively for the Prêche, and more precisely for the sermon in Czech language . Because it is private in the beginning and that the sacrament of the Eucharistie is not celebrated there, one speaks about “Chapelle” and not about “church”.

The vault adopts, on the ground, the irregular and trapezoidal shape of the ground on which it is built and, in height, the form, frequent in the Germanic countries, of the church-market.

History

Private vault, the history of the vault of Bethlehem is closely related to that of the Université Charles of Prague. It is, indeed, from 1402 that Jan Hus becomes at the same time vice-chancellor of the Charles university and the appointed preacher of the vault of Bethlehem. Sophie of Bavaria, the wife of the king Venceslas II regularly comes to listen to it.

When, in 1622, an imperial decree entirety of the education system in Bohemia, Moravie and Silesia with the Society of Jesus, the vault (as the university pragoise) passes between the hands of the Jesuits who take again the offices there.

In 1786, this high-place of Czech resistance to the German imperialism and “Czech Protestantism” against the Catholic church, is désacralisé then destroyed on imperial order (pretexting a state close to the ruin). Having been used as wood warehouse, the site is built, in 1836, to be occupied by a house of report/ratio.

A rebuilding with identical of this monument highly symbolic system of the history of the Czechoslovakia is decided in the middle of the 20th century, once the recovered independence of the country. In the years 1920, the archeologist Ivan Borkovský is in charge of the excavations of the ground louse to join together any useful information with possible rebuilding the most faithful to the original vault - the reconstitution of the initial plan is also based on written sources, plane, drawings or paintings realized before 1786.

Finished in 1954, the rebuilding is the work of the architect Jaroslav Frágner. The walls are then covered with frescos decorated with texts and songs hussites with the collection with canticles with Jistebnice and by scenes evoking Jan Hus and the Concile with Constancy.

After having been useful, a time, to the needs for propaganda of the Czechoslovakian Communist party like with public needs (exposures, conferences, etc), the vault of Bethlehem is entrusted, in 1987, with the technical Université of Prague which makes use of it for the various university ceremonies (nomination of the professors and seniors, given of the diplomas to the students, conferences open to the public, etc)

External bonds

{{Fr}} On Czech.cz
{{Fr}} On Radio.cz

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