RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Uličný, Petr
T1 Corpus Christi Chapel on Charles Square in Prague : Form, function, meaningDie Fronleichnamskapelle am Viehmarkt (Karlovo náměstí) in Prag: Ihre Form, Funktion, Bedeutung
JF Staletá Praha
YR 2020
VO 36
IS 2
SP 70
OP 94
DO 10.56112/sp.2020.2.04
UL https://staletapraha.cz/en/artkey/pha-202002-0004.php
AB The Corpus Christi Chapel on the Cattle Market, today's Charles Square, was founded by the Confraternity of Hoop and Hammer in 1382 for the purpose of displaying Imperial Insignia containing precious Passion relics, which have been permanently kept in Bohemia since 1350. The chapel was a centrally planned architecture, unique in Luxembourg Bohemia with a central square tower and a wreath of chapels. However, because it was completely demolished, its exact layout and internal arrangement remains unclear and only roughly conceivable. The revision of well-known and fortunately numerous iconographic sources, presented in this paper, clarifies this idea and also brings a new perspective on the history of the site prior the foundation of the chapel. At that time there was a tower which seems to have been incorporated on the west side into the circular enclosure wall of the chapel. From the tower, the pilgrims were shown the Insignia and relics on Friday after the second Easter Sunday on the Feast of the Holy Lance and the Nails. This practice probably persisted even after the completion of the chapel, whose central tower was presumed to take over this function. Possible ideological and formal patterns of the architecture and function of the chapel are discussed, and provided is also a possible answer to the question why the chapel was built here not until after the death of Charles IV.