Krtiny

The pilgrimage church at Krtiny was built between 1728 and 1750 to designs by Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel for the Premonstratensians of Zabrdovice, on a centralised plan with a dome over the crossing and curving side chapels, and it is one of his largest completed works. The interior is bright, with frescoes by Jan Jiri Etgens and a Marian statue of about 1340 that is the object of the pilgrimage. Under the chapel beside it is an ossuary found in 1991 during work: the bones of around a thousand people from the medieval and early modern cemetery, of which a group of skulls carry painted decoration - laurel wreaths and initials in black - a practice known from a handful of sites in Central Europe and not fully explained. Krtiny sits at the southern edge of the Moravian Karst, so it combines with the caves and the Rudice sinkhole.

History

Křtiny is first mentioned in September 1237, in a deed of Pope Gregory IX listing it among the villages of the Premonstratensians of Zábrdovice, and pilgrims came to a stone Gothic statue of the Madonna made around 1340. A church stood here by the end of the 13th century; the religious house at Křtiny was wrecked in 1423, during the Hussite Wars, and the village was pledged for a time before the Zábrdovice monastery regained it in the second half of the 15th century and held it until the monastery was dissolved in 1784. Mass pilgrimages are recorded in the 17th and 18th centuries, with 41 thousand pilgrims noted in 1720. Abbot Hugo Bartlicius (1712-1738) decided to build a new pilgrimage site and engaged Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel: work to his design began in 1718 with the chapel of St Anne, executed by František Benedikt Klíčník, and the church itself was begun in 1728, five years after Santini's death, by the builder František Antonín Ritz and completed in 1750. Over the next two decades it was decorated, with frescoes by Jan Jiří Etgens, and it was consecrated in April 1771 by the first bishop of Brno, Matyáš František Chorinský. A fire in 1844 burned the roofs, which were replaced in simpler form, and from 1830 to 1854 Křtiny belonged to the Dietrichstein family (Wikipedia, Křtiny; Czech Wikipedia, Kostel Jména Panny Marie (Křtiny)).

What to look for

• A centralised Santini church - dome over the crossing with curving side chapels.
• An ossuary found in 1991 - about a thousand people beneath the side chapel.
• Painted skulls - laurel wreaths and initials, a practice known from few sites.
• A Marian statue of about 1340 - the object of the pilgrimage.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

What to expect

The ossuary opens on limited hours and is a separate ticket; these are human remains. The church closes during services and pilgrimages. The village is small with limited parking.

Nearby

The Moravian Karst caves are north; Brno is south-west.