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Chlum Svaté Maří Provostry Premises

Category: Religious Monuments Region: Sokolov and its surroundings Town: Kynšperk

The origins of the pilgrimage place of Chlum Svaté Maří are tied with a legend about the Gothic sculpture of a sitting Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus discovered by a young journeyman. This statue kept returning to this place every time it was removed, so the journeyman had built a wooden shelter for it. Over time several other buildings protecting the statue were erected instead of it, until the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene was constructed around 1400. The extensive Baroque premises of the pilgrimage temple and adjacent monastery were built in 1687-1728 by the plans of Christoph Dientzenhofer, along with the provostry administered by the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star.

Chlum Svaté Maří used to be one of the busiest pilgrimage places in the Czech lands in the 18th century and its popularity was not limited even by the reforms of Joseph II. At the late 1950’s the Knights of the Cross were expelled and the provostry was changed into a rooming house and later to a depository of a church art collection. In 1958 the whole premises of the pilgrimage church and adjacent monastery and provostry were included in the cultural heritage list. The property was not maintained though and it fell into disrepair. After the return of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star the premises are being reconstructed gradually.