Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

The Monastery Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist is one of the most remarkable and unique historical buildings in the Czech Republic. The church, the largest building in the Czech Kingdom until the construction of the Vladislav Hall,  is also the oldest building of its type in Central Europe and part of the oldest Cistercian abbey in the Czech Republic. Unknown to us, the so-called Master of the Sedlec Church, built it between 1290 and 1320 on the site of the original Romanesque monastery church. A typical northern French Cistercian building in the shape of a Latin cross with an undeveloped support system, it is enriched with German cathedral elements and restored at the beginning of the 18th century by Jan Blažej Santini-Aichl in the world’s unique building style of the so-called Baroque Gothic. The temple has earned the designation “Splendissima basilica” – the most magnificent basilica – by contemporary connoisseurs of ecclesiastical architecture. One of the reports left by historical sources about the temple says that “many, and as they say, almost all, were . . . in size, expanse and magnificence of its stunning.” These were all the reasons that led to the inscription of this monument on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.