St. Bartholomew's Church, Prague - Kyje, Czech Republic - Roman Catholic Churches on Waymarking.com

The late Romanesque St. Bartholomew’s Church in Kyje (one of the Prague’s districts) is ranked among the most interesting medieval churches in Bohemia. It is not accidental that the church, at the first sight, looks more like a stronghold then a church. The stronghold character of the church and picture gallery of Prague’s bishops in the church chancel indicates its extraordinary status. The fabulous church has still a lot of secrets and thus it is a big challenge for historians, art historians and conservators to solve them. E.g. Nobody knows still original dedication of the church and when it was dedicated to St. Bartholomew. Probably the dedication to St. Bartholomew carried out during Baroque era, when was St. Bartholomew very popular in Bohemia. Moreover on the medieval murals in the church there is no picture of the saint. The name of the founder is also questionable. Only known fact is, that in 1781 local parishioners recovered latin sign in presbytery of the church "Fundator huius ecclessiae Johannes Pragensis episcopus" (The founer of the church is Prague’s bishop John). The most frequently mentioned founder of the church is John II. acting as Prague’s bishop in 1226-1236. The recent research prompts that more probable founder of the church could be Mikulás from Ujezd acting as bishop in 1240-1258.

The first written notice about the church comes from 1306, when other Prague's bishop John IVth from Drazice rented the church to archdiaconate of Bilina. The Prague's episcopate owned the church about three centuries and then the church became a part of local stronghold and village and it was owned by different lords.
At the beggining of 17th century was annexed the sacristy and during next years the church was furnished with Baroque mobiliary - the Baroque altar with the painting of St. Bartholomew painted in 1736 by a unknown painter and the painting "Nativity of Jesus" from 1655 by Jan Jakub Steinfels.
In 1988 highly valuable late Romanesque frescos were recovered in the church during restoration - "The crucification of the Christ" on the east wall f the church and the portraits of the Prague's bishops - (John IV. from Drazice and Arnost from Pardubice).

In principle the church is preserved in the original shape. It is bulit from the Greek masonry. Its only bay has rectangular ground-plan, the cross vaulted presbytery has squared ground-plan. One of the attractions of the church is "Arch of Triumph" consisted of three, gradually increased pillars. The dimensions of the church: The length is 26 meters, the inner depth of the tower and the bay is about 10 meters, while the presbytery ha sthe depth about 5.45 meters.
The inner height in the vault is 9.45 meters and 7.95 meters in the presbytery.

Type of Church: Church Status of Building: Actively in use for worship Dominant Architectural Style: Romanesque Archdiocese: Prague Diocese: Prague Address/Location: Prelátská 12 Praha 9 - Kyje, Czech Republic Relvant Web Site: [Web Link] Date of organization: Not listed Date of building construction: Not listed Associated Shrines, Art, etc.: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/20/2023 jezevcik visited it 03/19/2023 hynous visited it 02/13/2021 Ramonda_ visited it 07/16/2018 VíPe visited it 07/30/2017 JeanPierre12 visited it 06/30/2016 obludak visited it 03/05/2016 ToRo61 visited it 01/08/2016 Kullisak visited it 09/28/2015 Blogi visited it 04/16/2015 Petrs11 visited it 01/16/2015 Cimrman visited it 05/25/2012 Dobesch visited it 03/14/2012 Sobikovi visited it 02/06/2012 Velicenstvo visited it 08/08/2011 monrom visited it 02/26/2011 marek007 visited it 06/17/2010 klocna visited it

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