Goldenkron/Zlatá Koruna
Goldenkron/Zlatá Koruna
Etymology
King Přemysl Ottokar II (c. 1232–1278) bequeathed to the Cistercian monastery, founded in the 13th century, a relic—the Crown of Thorns of Christ—bestowed by the French King Louis IX (1214–1270), the Crown of Thorns of Christ, to which the monastery’s name is directly linked. The name ‘Goldenkron’, first attested in 1315, was adopted by the town that developed alongside the monastic settlement.
Location
Goldenkron is situated at48° 51' north latitude,14° 22' east longitude, 473 m above sea level, 170 km south-west of Prague/Praha, approx. 8 km north-east of Český Krumlov.
Topography
Goldenkron lies to the left of the RiverVltava on a headland surrounded by water on three sides, on the edge ofthe Blanský Forest, a foothill of the Bohemian Forest.
Political and administrative affiliation
Czech Republic. Goldenkron is part of the South Bohemian Region (Jihočeský kraj) in the Český Krumlov District (Okres Český Krumlov).
Common symbolism
Municipal coat of arms: a silver shield with an azure blue shield centred upon it, featuring a yellow three-pointed antique crown and four red roses, one in each cardinal direction, which refer to the Lords of Rosenberg of the Witigonen family.
Middle Ages
In 1263, King Přemysl Ottokar II founded a Cistercian monastery at this site under the name Sancta Corona Spinea (Heiligenkron/Svatá Koruna), according to legend out of gratitude for his victory over the Magyars. The monastery was staffed by monks from the mother monastery of Heiligenkreuz in Lower Austria, thus placing it within the Morimond lineage. In 1281, patronage passed to the monastery of Plaß/Plasy in West Bohemia, and King Wenceslas II (1271–1305) confirmed the foundation and its privileges in 1284. Prior to this, the monastery had been plundered in 1276/1277 and lay in ruins.
The abbey’s economic foundation was based on extensive land grants from the Crown, which was thereby able to extend its sphere of influence and acquire arable land. To the west of the abbey, approximately eight kilometres away, a farmstead was established, from which the later town of Bohemian Krumau emerged. This was first mentioned as a town in 1253, and it was there that the Krumau Castle of the regionally influential Witigonen family stood. Evidence of earlier Slavic settlement in the region dates back to the 6th century.
In 1420 and 1429, the monastery was burnt down during repeated Hussite raids, and the monks did not return until 1437. Furthermore, between 1420 and 1422, King Sigismund (1368–1437) pledged the monastery to Ulrich II of Rosenberg (1403–1462). However, the Lords of Rosenberg did not receive the right of patronage or the land holdings until 1493 from King Władysław II (1456–1516).
Modern times
Patronage passed to the Eggenberg family in 1622 and to the Schwarzenberg family in 1719. As part of efforts to promote education, a public school was established there in 1774 on the initiative of Abbot Bohumír Bylanský (1724–1788), who headed the monastery from 1755 to 1785. In 1785, the monastery was dissolved by Emperor Joseph II (1741–1790) and its property nationalised. The former monastic buildings subsequently served as workshops and dwellings. The settlement adjoining the monastery was designated as a village, and with the abolition of manorial rule in Bohemia in 1848, the municipality of Goldenkron was established within the judicial district of Krumau.
20th century
Following the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Goldenkron became part of the Český Krumlov district, remained part of Czechoslovakia following the Munich Agreement of 1938 and, from 1939 to 1945, belonged to the Budweis district in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In 1940, the monastery was confiscated by the Gestapo. After the Second World War, Goldenkron returned to the re-established Czechoslovakia.
Today, the municipality comprises the hamlets of Plešovice (Pleschowitz) and Rájov (Rojau), as well as the village of Nová Koruna.
History of Architecture and Art
The first monastic wooden buildings were probably erected towards the end of the 13th century. A grand stone building was then constructed under King Wenceslas II. The Abbot’s Chapel is documented as dating from 1387, with St Margaret’s Church following shortly afterwards. The oldest surviving building is the Guardian Angel Chapel, dating from around 1270–1280, situated to the north of the monastery grounds. Like the comparable building at Plaß Abbey, this is a double chapel – unusual for Cistercian monasteries – featuring a ribbed vault and what was originally an adjoining polygonal chancel, as well as later murals (1763) by František Jakub Prokyš (1713–1791). Adjoining this is the two-storey ‘Kleine Konvent’.
The simply designed monastery church, built in several phases, is a three-nave basilica, originally with ribbed vaults, comprising eight bays with a transept, a polygonal chancel and an arcaded narthex, to the south of which the cloister with its cloistered walk is situated. Construction began in the last third of the 13th century and was completed after the mid-14th century. There is evidence that Michael Parler, from the Parler stonemasons’ workshop, was employed as a stonemason on site in 1359. Of particular note is, amongst other features, a large tracery round window with terracotta elements and a stucco frame in the east arm of the transept.
To the north of the monastic grounds lies the two-winged abbot’s house with a 14th-century chapel. Adjacent to this were storehouses, a hospital, a smithy and a small chapel, the foundations of which have been excavated. In addition, the two-nave St Margaret’s Chapel, dating from the second half of the 14th century, stands near the monastery gate.
The church’s furnishings include, amongst other things, the panel painting *Madonna von Goldenkron* (c. 1400) in the transept (the original is in the National Gallery in Prague), the Neoclassical high altar with late Baroque statues of the order’s saints (1772) by Jakob Eberle (1718–1783) and the altarpiece of the Assumption of Mary (1854) by Karl Philippot. The Baroque wall and ceiling paintings were executed around 1772 by an unknown master.
Major alterations and renovations to the monastery’s architecture took place in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Baroque and Rococo styles (1663, with the collaboration of Pietro and Giovanni Spinetti). In the 20th century, particularly since 1960, there have been several restoration campaigns.
Special cultural institutions
The former monastery houses a branch of the State Scientific Library in Budweis/České Budĕjovice, as well as a memorial to Bohemian literature.
Culture of memory and remembrance
There are several funerary monuments in the former monastery church.
In 1995, the entire monastery complex was designated a national cultural monument.
Bibliography
- Václav Bůžek: Goldenkron. In: Joachim Bahlcke, Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of Historical Sites. Bohemia and Moravia. Stuttgart 1998 (Kröners Taschenausgabe 329), pp. 165ff.
- Jiří Kuthan: Medieval Cistercian Architecture in Bohemia and Moravia. Munich, Berlin 1982, pp. 222–258.
- Jiří Kuthan: Gloria Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis. Prague 2005 (Opera Facultatis Theologiae Catholicae Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis, Historia et historia artium 3).
- Jiří Kuthan: Splendor et Gloria Regni Bohemiae. Works of Art as Signs of Sovereignty and Symbols of National Identity. Prague 2007 (Opera Facultatis Theologiae catholicae Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis, Historia et historia artium 6), Chapter 13, pp. 505–536.
- Emanuel Poche: Bohemia and Moravia. An Illustrated Handbook. Darmstadt 1986 (Art Monuments in Czechoslovakia), pp. 461–462.
- Matthias Prangerl: Charter Book of the Former Cistercian Abbey of Goldenkron in Bohemia. Vienna 1872 (Fontes rerum Austriacarum 2, Diplomataria et acta 37).
Web link
- www.ckrumlov.cz (the city’s official multilingual website)
- www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q207212 (Images relating to Goldenkron/Zlatá Koruna in the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)
Notes
[1] See Bůžek: Goldenkron, p. 165 ff.; Population figures for municipalities in the Czech Republic as at 1 January 2012 [Census in the municipalities of the Czech Republic as at 1 January 2012]. URL: www.czso.cz/csu/2012edicniplan.nsf/t/00002BD91A/$File/13011203.pdf (accessed 26 November 2014).
[2] Population figures for municipalities in the Czech Republic as at 1 January 2013 [Census in the municipalities of the Czech Republic as at 1 January 2013]. URL: www.czso.cz/csu/2013edicniplan.nsf/engt/50002DF52B/$File/13011303.pdf (accessed 26 November 2014).
Citation
Serafine Christine Kratzke: Goldenkron/Zlatá Koruna. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32383 (as at 30 July 2021).
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