Panensky Tynec

The Clares' convent church at Panensky Tynec was begun in the early fourteenth century on a scale far beyond what the village could support - a large aisled Gothic church with tall windows and slender piers, in the refined manner of the Prague court workshops. Building stopped, probably during the Hussite wars, with the walls and window tracery up but no vault and no roof, and it was never resumed. It has stood open ever since: six hundred years of walls, arcades and traceried windows with grass on the floor and the sky above, which is an effect no complete church produces. Local tradition attaches a reputation for unusual energy or calm to the interior and people sit in it for that; the claims about ley lines and healing are folklore rather than anything demonstrated. The convent buildings alongside are partly ruined and the village is small.

History

The settlement was first called Týnec, a diminutive of the Old Czech týn, a fortified settlement, and in the 18th century it was renamed Panenský Týnec, "Virgin Týnec", after the local abbey. It is first mentioned in 1115, as a village of the monastery of Kladruby, and sometime between 1239 and 1250 it was rebuilt as a fortified market town. The Žirotín family founded the abbey of the Order of Saint Clare in 1321; the market town burned in 1382 but soon recovered, and the Žirotíns held it until 1464, when the Lobkowicz family acquired the estate. The town suffered greatly in the Thirty Years' War, the damaged abbey was reconstructed in 1636 and served until it was abolished in 1782, the town began to grow beyond its walls between 1727 and 1785, and its gates were demolished in 1799 when the imperial road was built (Wikipedia, Panenský Týnec).

What you'll find

• A roofless Gothic church - walls, arcades and tracery standing without a vault.
• Building stopped in the 1400s - probably during the Hussite wars, never resumed.
• Court-workshop detail - tall windows and slender piers of Prague quality.
• Grass floor, open sky - six centuries of weather inside the walls.

When to go

April to October. Two hours.

Practical notes

There is nothing under cover and no facilities beyond a ticket hut. The energy and healing claims are folklore, not established fact. Seasonal opening. The village has very little else.

Nearby

Louny is fifteen kilometres north; Slany is east.