The origin of the name is in the word baptism, according to the legend, it is the place where the paganes were baptised by saint Methodius and his brother Konstantin, later saint Cyril in the 9th century. The church is the work of Jan Blazej Santini Aichl, the most important architect of the European Baroque style. The church is called the pearl of Moravia.
9 hour round trip.
The ancient Marian pilgrimage place in Krtiny prospered a lot during the top baroque period. More than 50 000 pilgrims used to visit it yearly that time.
The abbot of the Zabrdovice monastery ordered replacement of the middle-age premises by the monumental baroque new building from Jan Santini in the year 1718. Santini, at the top of his creativeness, designed large premises that became a real baroque beauty spot of Moravia. Nevertheless, the whole building was completed only long time after Santini's death, in the year 1750, including number of changes implemented mainly for economical reasons. The central layout of the church is situated on the ground plan of the Greek cross fixed into centric circles. Arms of the cross interconnect in apparent curves of the dynamic baroque in the height of the vaults. As always, also here the light itself, its pass through the space and modelling of the individual structural elements of the interior architecture has a great importance for Santini. The original Santini's project was designed without the axial façade tower, on the contrary with high garret roofs and with the second side Chapel of St Joseph. This chapel, together with the existing Chapel of St Anna, centralizes the whole premises and closes the area both in the horizontal layout and in the vertical one.
The provost office itself was conceived as a big castle building of sophisticated design. Even in its reduced form, the premises of Krtiny represent a remarkably ingenious and crystallized architectural work, including its unique incorporation in the landscape.
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