Chapel of Saint Barbara
The chapel was built in 1770 using funds collected among the miners and smelter workers of Jáchymov. The collection was organized by the mining foreman Josef Flor, who played a key role in the realization of the entire construction. The ceremonial consecration of the chapel took place on 4 December 1770, symbolically on the feast day of Saint Barbara. In mining towns, this day was traditionally associated with services, processions and celebrations, and the chapel thus became not only a place of prayer but also an important spiritual symbol of the mining community.
Another important milestone in the chapel’s history came on 29 March 1772, when three bells intended for its roof turrets were consecrated in Prague. The bells were dedicated to Saint John, Saint Florian and Saint Paul, whose protection was meant to symbolically guard the town against fires, disasters and other dangers. After the consecration, the bells were transported to Jáchymov and installed on the chapel.
Originally, the chapel had only one roof turret situated above the entrance. In 1809, the roof was supplemented with a second turret, giving the chapel its characteristic appearance. The pair of turrets had not only a practical but also a symbolic function — one was associated with the miners, the other with the smelter workers, the two professional groups forming the backbone of the town’s economic and social life.
The chapel originally stood in the lower part of Jáchymov opposite the spa buildings. Over time, however, this part of the town underwent significant urban changes. The Astoria building was constructed nearby, and a new road embankment was built in the area. The chapel thus found itself in a confined space, lost its original prominence in the terrain, and eventually began to obstruct increasingly busy traffic in the area of the former Unterthal.
For these reasons, it was decided to relocate the chapel. In 1917, the structure was carefully dismantled and its individual parts were transferred to a new site on the slope above today’s Cultural House, where it was reassembled. Although the relocation represented a major intervention in its history, it also enabled the chapel to survive in a calmer and more dignified setting. During the 20th century, the chapel gradually deteriorated and its interior was partly damaged, yet the building has preserved its historical and symbolic significance to this day.
Description of the building
The Chapel of Saint Barbara is a single-nave structure with a rectangular ground plan and a segmental-ended presbytery. It is covered by a gabled roof, originally shingled. The roof is topped by two open hexagonal turrets, which are among the most distinctive architectural features of the building and shape its silhouette in the landscape.
The entrance façade is designed in the spirit of the Late Baroque, emphasizing simplicity and symmetry. The rectangular entrance portal has a plain frame with pronounced eared moulding. Above the entrance is a chasuble-shaped window lighting the space above the doorway. The façade is divided by shallow pilaster strips at the sides and finished with a cornice above which rises a triangular gable. In the gable there is a semicircular niche with a keystone and projecting cornice. The side walls are each pierced by a single round-arched window providing natural light to the interior. The interior space is relatively modest, corresponding to the character of a small miners’ chapel. The original Baroque furnishings have survived only in part, yet the interior still conveys a calm and reverent atmosphere.
The Chapel of Saint Barbara thus remains not only an architectural monument but above all a tangible testimony to the faith, solidarity and identity of the miners and smelter workers of Jáchymov.
Photo gallery: https://mipalfi.rajce.idnes.cz/Kaple_sv._Barbory/
