
Loretta Church - Dietrichstein tomb - Mikulov, Czech Republic
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GT.US
N 48° 48.400 E 016° 38.361
33U E 620367 N 5407259
The dominant feature of the square in Mikulov is the Dietrichstein Tomb with a grandiose Baroque front.
Waymark Code: WM7DKZ
Location: Jihomoravský kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 10/10/2009
Views: 143
The Cartage website at
(
visit link) tells us:
Loretta and chateau Mikulov 1624-1656, 1700-1706
The origins of the Loretta of Mikulov are connected to the person of Cardinal Francis Dietrichstein, bishop of Olomouc and Moravian proconsul, who brought a copy of the Black Madonna from Loreto in Italy and started to built a Lorettan shelter in Mikulov under the protection of the Capuchin Order. This shelter became a model for other buildings of this type in Bohemia and Moravia (e.g. in Prague). At the same time, an oblong single-nave church with a cloister and an oratory was under construction above the chapel in the period 1640-56. The designer and master builder of the complex was Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla, the most important figure active in Moravia in the first half of the 17th century. The remains of preserved vaults and the central chapel near the entrance decorated by stucco indicate that he had a good knowledge of the Italian mannerist works as well as the principle of stereotomous sectioning of the walls by recesses, niches and intruded panels contrasting with flat pilasters. The spectacular façade of the church was constructed only in the period of 1700-06 owing to the Prince Leopold Dietrichstein. The famous Viennese architect Johann Bernard Fischer of Erlach is considered to be the author of the project. Nevertheless, the monumental frontage with the so-called high column order and extraordinarily rich architectural façade repeating the scheme of the Lorettan Saint Shelter belong to exceptional development in Moravia. Unique is especially the stylistic orientation towards the classicising form of monumental Berninian Baroque. Important Moravian sculptors, such as Ignatius Lengelacher and Antonin Riga, participated in the decoration of he front façade. In 1784, the church was destroyed by fire and only in the years 1842-45, it was adapted to serve as a family tomb.
Based on the incentive of cardinal Dietrichstein and with the participation of Tencalla, also the pilgrimage area on the nearby the Svaty Kopecek hill was created, where a Plague Chapel was erected in 1622, replaced after the fire of 1679 by the present building of the floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross. Cardinal Dietrichstein also distinctively modernised and rebuilt the chateau of Mikulov. However, its present appearance, completed around 1730 with the participation of the architect Christian Oedtl a the sculptor Ignatius Lengelachera, is the result of the reconstruction works following the great fire of 1718.
Architect: Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla, Johann Bernard Fischer of Erlach
Building Principal: Cardinal Francis Dietrichstein, bishop of Olomouc and Moravian proconsul; Prince Francis Dietrichstein
Location: Mikulov (District of Breclav)"
There is much more information on Baroque Architecture at (
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