Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross / Kostel Nalezení svatého Kríže - Znojmo (South Moravia) - Roman Catholic Churches on Waymarking.com

The monumental Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross, part of the Dominican Convent in Znojmo and the parish church of local Holy Cross parish, belongs among the exceptionally high-quality early Baroque sacral buildings in South Moravia.

Church of the Finding of the Holy Cross (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross or just the Church of the Holy Cross) is inextricably linked with the Dominican Order and its convent in Znojmo. It was probably founded together with the convent in 1230. This Gothic church had a rich history as a pilgrimage site, because it owned a larger fragment of the Holy Cross. Pilgrims came not only from nearby Austria, but also from Hungary. A great fire destroyed the church and the convent in 1555, the library, the monastery archive were destroyed and also the valuable fragment of the Holy Cross was lost.

The repair and reconstruction of the destroyed church began as early as the end of the 16th century, but significant progress in construction was not made until around 1630 - so the rough new Baroque structure of the church was completed in 1635. Significant financial contributions from donors for the completion began to increase in 1642 - so two new prismatic towers were completed in 1653. During the reconstruction, the then popular early Baroque three-nave layout was used, in which the side naves form separate chapels connected only by narrow passages. The church was finished with the help of Emperor Ferdinand III and local noble families in 1675 and its ceremonial consecration (together with 13 altars) was performed by Jan Josef Bedrich, auxiliary bishop of Olomouc, Count Breuner on July 12, 1677. A high-Baroque entrance portal was added and both towers were raised and fitted with onion roofs with lanterns in the first half of the 18th century.

In the richly decorated interior of the church you can find works of high artistic value: a Baroque organ from 1755 built by I. Kasparid, statues of the Dominican monk Klaus Heinz, paintings by L. Kracker or J. Winterhalter and also a late Baroque altarpiece of the Apparition of St. Norbert by F. A. Maulbertsch, originally painted for the summer refectory of the Louka Convent. Crowds of believers have been attracted to the church by the miraculous love image of the Our Lady of Znojmo since the 17th century.

Source: excerpted and translated from Wikipedia and National Heritage Institute portal.