Although the construction of this two-aisled basilica in neo-Romanesque style was completed in 1891, it was not fully decorated until 1917. This monastery church, which served the Benedictine nuns until 1919, when they were forced to leave for Austria, is unique for its interior decoration carried out by Benedictine monks in the style of the Beuron Art School.
In the rear tract of the Kinský Garden, there is a less known monastery with a church of St. Gabriel, which was established and financed by Countess Gabriela Sweerts-Šporková. She decided to establish the first seat of the Benedictine nuns from the Beuron congregation in Prague. She donated substantial financial means for the construction and the decoration of the future Monastery of the Annunciation to Virgin Mary, but she died before the construction started. The monastery was consecrated in the name of her baptism patron Archangel Gabriel. The foundation stone to the construction of the monastery was laid down and sanctified by Archbishop František Schönborn in 1888. The construction and the decorations were carried out by the members of the Order of the Beuron Benedictines. They were persecuted in Bismarck’s Germany, and so they came to Prague based on an invitation from Cardinal Bedrich Schwarzenberg to settle in the Emauzy Monastery. The Smíchov Monastery was designed in pseudo-Romanic style by the Benedictine friars from Belgium, Abbot Hildebrand Hemptinne and Priest Gislain Béthune. The church is 26 m long and 13 m wide and consists of two aisles, of which the main one is higher with a wooden ceiling, and the side one is lower and it is arched. The church has a mighty quadrangular three-storied tower that is 43 m high with a pyramidal roof and a beautiful richly decorated portal in the main entrance. There are statues of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica above the portal and the temple’s patron Archangel Gabriel is yet above them. The temple aisle is open without ceiling directly into the truss similarly to the old Christian basilicas. The ancient impression is further stressed by high-settled windows. The church was consecrated by Cardinal Count Schönborn in 1891, and in 1899 the first Benedictine nuns came here from the ancient Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg.
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The author of this painting is Karel Stolar. Karel Stolar is the book illustrator who is dedicated to creating drawings sights. You can find this painting in book 'Pražské domy vyprávejí -'
This book is one of a twelve-part series of books describing structural changes and the development of cultural-historical monuments of Prague (houses, villas and palaces, library, banks, school, museum, hospital, farm, etc.).