Catholic Churches

CHURCH OF ST. GULLUS

Chotýšany

Style of architecture Romanesque

The church dominates the village of Chotýšany.  Its beginnings are recorded in the vicarage chronicle and date back to1315. The shrine is built in an originally Roman style, but the style of the building is affected by the transition of the style and therefore with prevailing Gothic style features.

The church dominates the village of Chotýšany.  Its beginnings are recorded in the vicarage chronicle and date back to1315. The shrine is built in an originally Roman style, but the style of the building is affected by the transition of the style and therefore with prevailing Gothic style features. The church was reconstructed in 1884. Gothic arches were added to the windows and the originally shingled roof was covered in tiles. The tower in the frontispiece of the church was extended by several metres and decorated with slate with turrets covered in tin. A painting of Sv. Havel was displayed on a big altar and nearby to this there is a tombstone of the knight Vilém of Ostřadek set in the wall who died in 1594. The stone bears writing in Czech and depicts a figure of a knight in armour. A tombstone from red marble is located against the north wall, this was built by the count Zikmund Berchtold in 1880. His aristocrat ancestors, members of the Vratislav of Mitrovice aristocratic family and their relative, the knight Jan Jeník of Bratřice, are buried here.

An oval painting “Coronation of Our Lady Mary” on the north side is worth mentioning too. The painting was created during the WWI.

The two most precious objects in the church are two bells that were brought here from a wooden belfry at the former Kajetan order monastery in Malá Strana in Prague (in Nerudova Street) and it was hang in the tower of the Chotýšany church in 1963. An electrical bell-ringing mechanism was installed in 1991.

A marble tomb-stone bearing the coat of arms of the aristocrats of Vrtba can be seen next to the church tower in the south. The latest owner of the Chotýšany estate, Adam František Count of Vrtba, died in Vienna on 3rd  September 1807. It was his last wish to be buried here in the Chotýšany cemetery. His friends and heirs, Counts Vratislavové of Mitrovice, built the marble tomb stone here that bears the following epitaph: “The high born gentleman, Adam František of Vrtba, the nobleman of Chotýšany, Votice, Olbramovice and Janovice rests here. He passed away on 3rd September 1807 in the 61st year of his age.”

The writing at the bottom of the tomb-stone says: “His grateful heirs, the Vratislavové Counts, had this tomb-stone built in 1864.”

A Baroque stone statue of Jan Nepomucký, which the Count Adam František of Vrtba had erected here in 1794, stands in front of the church.

Map

Mapa
Location
Chotýšany
GPS: 49,74403855°N 14,81763391°E