Marianska Tynice

Marianska Tynice was built from 1720 by Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel as a pilgrimage church for the Plasy Cistercians, on a Greek-cross plan with a dome, in his baroque Gothic manner. It was never finished as intended - the monastery was dissolved in 1785 with the ambulatory incomplete - and it then decayed for a century and a half until the dome collapsed in 1920, after which the building stood open to the sky. Reconstruction began in the 1950s and took until 1993, and the church now stands complete with its vaults and dome restored, holding the district museum with regional collections and a gallery, and the ambulatory wings finished. It is one of the more thorough recoveries of a ruined baroque building in the country. Santini's geometry, based on interlocking figures and numerical schemes, is the reason specialists come; there is an exhibition on it inside.

What you actually see

• A Greek-cross Santini church - baroque Gothic on a symmetrical plan.
• A rebuilt dome - the vault collapsed in 1920 and was restored by 1993.
• The district museum - regional collections in the completed wings.
• Santini's geometry - the numerical and figural schemes, explained on site.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Much of the fabric is twentieth-century reconstruction rather than original. Closed Mondays and reduced in winter. It is a museum first; the church is not in liturgical use. Public transport is limited.

Nearby

Plasy monastery is south; Kralovice is nearby.