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Church of Our Lady before Týn
[edit]Architecture
[edit]The strikingly vertical, basilically arranged three-aisled Gothic church contains a pair of Gothic prismatic towers in the west. In the east, the church is terminated by a short presbytary of one rectangular field, polygonal closed by four sides of the octagon. The side aisles are finished with deep polygonal chapels with five sides of the octagon. The side aisles are vaulted with five cross-ribbed vaults on an almost square floor plan, which is joined by one cross rib vault in the tower. The nave and the presbytery are then vaulted by six rectangular, wide-ranging fields of compressed baroque arches with triangular sections. The side aisles have retained the original Gothic ribbed vault. The church is aluminated by a number of cantilevered Gothic windows with stone tracery.
The church is accessible by four Gothic portals. The northern portal has a relief in the tympanum depicting three scenes from Christ’s Passion in multi- figured compositions. High- quality sculptural work is one of the most important monuments of Gothic sculpture of the pre- Hussite period in our country. The pair of towers is topped with richly decorated cantivered Late Gothic octagonal helmets, which are complemented by a gallery, four corner turrets, and even more brilliantly halfway through another four decorative turrets. There is a Gothic gable containg the Baroque relief of the Madonna, that is surrounded by richly decorated rows of phial tops, in between the towers.
Furnishing
[edit]Gothic
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The original medieval furnishing have been preserved in the interior:
- A stone baldaquin from 1493, propably from the workshop of Matěj Rejsek which originally covered the tomb of bishop Augustin Luciano of Mirandola. The baldaquin’s floorplan is a square. It consists of four medium-sized stone polychrome abutments, which are terminated by the so-called Ogee arch. These arches are complemented by corner decorative turrets and enriched with Gothic ornaments. Statues are placed on each support, rougly in the second third. The supports, that are carrying the architrave, culminate in fials. From the eastern side, the baldachin is decorated with paintings by Karel Škréta.
- An Altar with a central woodcut of Christ's baptism was made by the master from Danube area.
- The baptistery from 1414 (the oldest and largest in Prague)
- A stone pulpit in the nave
- Two works of the so-called Týn Calvary Master from the 15th century that are very valuable: Madonna of the Týn and the Calvary sculture at the ending of the northern aisle.
Pipe organs by Jan J. Mundt
Baroque
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The Baroque furnishings, made by woodcarvings of early Baroque altars, are eye catching as well as the a valuable - pipe organ by Jan J. Mundt from 1670-1673 that is one of the three oldest preserved pipe organs in Prague. From 1691, the musicologist Tomáš Baltazar Janovka worked there as a temple player for fifty years. The main altar from 1649 with a titular painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is also very valuable. The Painting was painted by one of the prominent Czech Baroque painters Karel Škréta, an author of several other side altar canvases. In the church can be found works of other Baroque masters: sculptors Jan jiří Bendl and Ignác František Weiss (altar sculptures), Jan Heidelberger (sculpture of St. Francis of Paula in the northern nave), painters M. Strasser (Finding the Holly Cross, canceled from the main altar), Jan Jiří Heinsch (the painting of St. Joseph in the North aisle, the altarpiece of the Family Tree Of Jesse), Michael Václav Halbax (the painting of St. Krišpín and Krišpinian), Petr Brandl (The arrival of St. Wenceslas to the Reichstag).
From the Renaissance and the Baroque period, an exceptionally interesting collection of carved tombstones and epitaphs has been preserved, including the 1601 tombstone of astronomer Tycho Brahe, which is located at the first southern pillar of the nave.