Tel.: +420 733 739 726
E-mail: pruvodci@klasterbroumov.cz
Web: www.klasterbroumov.cz/prohlidky/hrbitovni-kostelik-panny-marie#googtrans(cs|en)
GPS souřadnice:
50°34'46.272"N
16°19'58.981"E
On the southeastern edge of Broumov, along the road toward Křinice, stands a unique wooden chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is considered the oldest entirely wooden sacred structure in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest of its kind in Central Europe. This remarkable monument stands amid the town cemetery enclosed by a stone wall, and its appearance and atmosphere transport visitors into bygone centuries.
Legend has it that the first chapel on this spot was built in 1177 by a pagan noblewoman who accepted baptism here. To commemorate her conversion to Christianity, she purportedly donated a pearl diadem to the chapel, which is now kept in the Broumov museum. The first written mention of the chapel dates from 1383, when it was referred to as the “old parish church.” During the Hussite siege of Broumov in June 1421, the chapel was severely damaged by fire. Its present form most likely dates from around 1450, when it was rebuilt after destruction. The ceiling and parts of the structure may date from the pre-Hussite period, though contemporary research calls this assumption into question.
The chapel of the Virgin Mary is remarkable not only for its age but also for its construction technique. The entire structure is made from massive oak beams joined without a single nail. The wooden half-timbered construction rests on a low stone plinth and is clad inside and out with boards. The interior is divided into a nave, a chancel with a polygonal apse, and a sacristy. The ceiling is beam-supported, with boards laid parallel to the longitudinal axis of the chapel. Inside, there is a preserved stencil painting dating from around 1450, featuring white plant, animal, and heraldic motifs on a reddish-brown background. Texts written in Gothic fraktur lend the decoration a mysterious character, although, taken as a whole, they bear no comprehensible meaning. The decorations resemble those found in wooden churches in southern Poland and recall Italian textile patterns or Gothic furniture of the period. The main interior focal point is a Baroque altar from the mid‑18th century with a niche that once housed the late Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary Mater Amabilis Braunae, now located in the monastery church of St. Vojtěch. In its place is now a copy of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. There are also two side altars: the left, originally dedicated to Saint Anne, is now devoted to Saint Joseph, and the right to Saint John of Nepomuk. Both were remodeled during the Rococo period. One of the highest artistic values in the chapel is a painting commissioned in 1609 by Abbot Wolfgang Selender, depicting the Virgin Mary with the patrons of the Czech lands, nine angels, and at the bottom the earliest known depiction of the town of Broumov.
Encircling the chapel is a covered wooden gallery that was once enclosed with wooden boards. In 1779, under the order of Prussian General Anhalt, these boards were removed for military reasons. Today the gallery is open and houses nine wooden boards bearing chronicle inscriptions documenting events from 1542 to 1847, including fires, episodes of plague, the Prussian incursion, and unusual natural phenomena such as locust swarms. Some of these boards are now preserved in the town museum. Also integrated into the gallery are Renaissance and Empire funerary stones transferred from abolished graves, with additional ones located in the adjacent cemetery. The chapel is enshrined in many legends. One tells of a Swedish officer during the Thirty Years’ War who mocked the wooden building and tried to slash it with his saber, only for his weapon to break upon striking the massive oak lintel. Another legend concerns the so-called Executioner’s Block, allegedly moved from Broumov’s town square—touch it, and one is said never to be parted from good fortune.
Opening hours
June – September / Monday – Sunday / 09:00 – 17:00
Admission fee: CZK 60. Visitors who purchase a ticket to the Broumov monastery and present it at the cemetery chapel’s ticket office receive a reduced admission price of CZK 40 per person. Visitors who first visit the chapel receive a 20 % discount when later visiting the monastery.
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