PROCESSIONS TO MARIAN SHRINES AND CHAPELS ALONG THE WAY
The first organised pilgrimage from Jáchymov to Mariánská took place on 2 July 1694. However, it appears that pilgrimages had already been held here earlier, to a wooden church dedicated to St Adalbert. This church was probably founded by Blessed Hroznata as part of the colonisation efforts of the Teplá monastery. In the mid-fifteenth century, the hermitage of Jan Niavius was built on its site. He is said to have foretold the rise of a mining town, its decline, and its later renewed glory. This prophecy was recorded in 1490 by the Cheb humanist Paul Niavis and later also by the Jáchymov pastor Johannes Mathesius. A chapel was built on the site in 1691, followed later by a Capuchin pilgrimage monastery.
Pilgrimages to Mariánská always began at the Dean’s Church of St Joachim and St Anne in Jáchymov. After Mass, the pilgrims proceeded to the monastery at Mariánská, where another Mass was celebrated at the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary.
Along the pilgrimage route, three chapels were built where the procession would stop: the Chapel of Our Lady of Altötting, the Chapel of Our Lady Help of Christians, and the Chapel of the Holy Trinity.
These chapels are documented in the work The Kingdom of Bohemia by Johann Gottfried Sommer (1847), specifically in volume fifteen devoted to the Loket region. The author suggests that although the chapels date from the second half of the eighteenth century, they may be older. They are listed there as Altötting, Maria-Hilf, and Trinität, and ecclesiastically they belonged to Jáchymov parish.
CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF ALTÖTTING
The chapel was built in the lower part of Nové Město above Freudenstein Castle in the second half of the eighteenth century. This Baroque chapel has no windows, a barrel vault, and a three-sided chancel with niches on the sides. Inside there is an altar with a statue of the Black Madonna and smaller statues of saints. During the period of uranium mining, the chapel fell into disrepair and its furnishings were looted. Today it has been restored and is maintained by the residents of Nové Město.
Its name and furnishings refer to Altötting, an important pilgrimage site in Bavaria on the route from Munich to Passau. The site is famous for its Gnadenkapelle, one of the most visited shrines in Germany. Up to one and a half million pilgrims come here annually, and several popes have also visited. Pilgrimages are directed to the statue of the Black Madonna, an early Gothic sculpture of the standing Virgin Mary with the Child. According to a fifteenth-century legend, a drowned three-year-old boy was miraculously revived here in 1489.
CHAPEL OF OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS
The chapel is also known as the Chapel of the Mother of God. It stands by the road from Jáchymov to Mariánská near house no. 4 and dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. After devastation during uranium mining, the chapel was restored at the end of the twentieth century. Inside the rectangular chapel there is an oil-on-canvas copy of the image known as the Passau Madonna, Help of Christians. The original model was an altarpiece from Innsbruck painted by Lucas Cranach in 1514 in Wittenberg for the Saxon court in Dresden. From there it was given to Archduke Leopold V, who took it to Passau and later to Innsbruck. In 1650 the painting was donated to the town for the parish church, today the Cathedral of St James.
In historical literature this is the most frequently mentioned chapel in the area. The present photographic copy replaces the original oil painting. In the Alpine regions this is one of the most widespread Marian images. In Bohemia, besides Nové Město, copies can be found in St Anne’s Church in Sedlec near Karlovy Vary and in the parish church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Železná Ruda.
CHAPEL OF THE HOLY TRINITY
The chapel, surrounded by three historic lime trees, stands along the original, now vanished, road from Jáchymov to Mariánská above today’s home for people with disabilities. This small rectangular chapel with a shingle roof and triangular gable was restored at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Originally it was painted yellow and white and had a reed ceiling. Inside there used to be a carved wooden crucifix from the eighteenth century, gilded and polychromed. At the base of the cross was a relief of the Immaculata conceptio standing on a globe entwined by a serpent holding an apple, symbolising victory over original sin. At the ends of the cross arms were figures of cherubs, and at the centre a relief of the Holy Trinity. Today the chapel contains several modern devotional images.
Photo gallery here: http://mipalfi.rajce.idnes.cz/Kaple_Jachymova/
