The interviews in The Old Church in Petäjävesi April 2013

The interview with Annika Nyström

What is your official position in the Old Church in Petäjävesi?

Annika Nyström: World Heritage Coordinator of the Old Church (I work for the Foundation of Petäjävesi Old Church).

What are the main points in decorations of The Old Church ?

Annika: Pulpit with four apostoles, Jesus and St. Christopher carrying the pulpit, small altar with antependium (a replica), high ceiling decorated with vault ribs painted in red ochra, blue ceiling of the belfry, the shingle roof of the belfry and the church.

There are just fiew mentioned, there are more of course.

What was the importance of the Old Church in the past?

Annika: The people of Petäjävesi wanted to build an own church as the way to the mother church (and mother parish) of Jämsä was difficult, and 50 kilometres long. The people of Petäjävesi were really initiative in building the church which tells about the importance of the church. The church was not just a place of worship and a place where you could hear about bible and so on but it was a place of hearing important news and meeting other people. So we could say that it was the heart of the community.

When was the church written into the World Heritage List of Sites?

Annika: 1994

Who is the owner of the Church nowadays?

Annika: Parish of Petäjävesi

Can you tell us how is the church used nowadays (what and how often in 2011-2013)?

Annika: from June until August: Sunday services at 10 am (usually at 10 am) every week. Summer concerts on Wednesdays from June until the end of August. Weddings almost every Saturday in the summer, usually 1-2 babtizing ceremonies per summer. The children who start the school are being blessed in the church together with their parents. 26th December a service with candles. The cemetary is not in use anymore (except of burials to family graves) but there has been couple of funerals in the 20 past years. Some groups (like school groups) hold small services in the church or organize other happenings for classes. Groups from the local daycare and school visit the church usually in May or in September. Tourists visit the church year around.

Do you think that the church is used enough?

Do visitors´s visits depend on their religion?

Annika: Yes, I think the church is used enough. We have visitors from around 70 countries each year, so there are visitors representing not only catholisism but also muslims, hindus... For example Japans give high value to the church as a wooden building and I assume also as a place of worship. So the visitors and visits vary very much.

Do you have any idea what would help to welcome more visitors in the church?

Annika: actually we don't want to increase the number of visitors, not at least in the high season (15.6.-15.8.), but we want to improve the experience of the visit and give more attention to how to respect the building, with its surroundings, as a very old wooden building and as a World Heritage Site. So we need to protect the building from degradation and erosion.

The interview with Seppo Ojala

What is your official position in the Old Churchin Petäjävesi?

I am a parish leader, leading priest, in Finnish ’kirkkoherra’. My name is Seppo Ojala.

What differs Lutheran Church from Catholic?

There are a few differences. We have two sacraments, catholics seven. They have pope and cardinals, we have bishops. In the Catholic church there is a strict hierarcy, in our church the parish is quite independent. There are also differences in faith and in the attitudes towards interpreting Bible and tradition.

Who contributed to found Lutheran Church and what is the reason of its development?

Martti Luther, a German monk and priest wanted to clean the Catholic church and faith from the traditional bourdons, that were strange to the Bible. He had a great quarrel with pope and that’s why he and his friends were separated and left the Catholic church and founded the protestant church.

What are the main points in decorations of The Old Church ?

What involves priesthood in Lutheran church and what are the differences from the Catholic Church?

(What are your duties?)

The bishop gives the ordination and the parish calls or chooses the priest. I make sermons, baptize, teach, visit the families and take care of the people, who need help. I also do the governing jobs. Parish leader has all kinds of work to do.

Do the Lutherans celebrate religious festivals as the Catholics?

We don’t really have festivals or carnivals. We celebrate the religious times as Christmas by sermons and happenings.

Are there any differences between Lutheran and Catholic christening?

The Bible is very important. It’s everyway in our actions. We like a very simple Christian faith. We don’t show it very much. It’s like a heart faith. Finnish Lutheran faith is important in the persons inside life and in the family connections and manners as in celebrating baptizing and confirmation.

Thanks for your answer

Jitka Stráská, Alena Hanzlová

Green Hill

Did you know that in the Czech republic there are two Green Hills? I have decided to link their history and suggest my own legend. I hope that you will enjoy it!

The Legend About the Green Hill

Once upon a time there were really bad times for people in Bohemia because the weather was really dry and it had not rained for a long time. The reason of this situation was that the bad genus Cheaters had an argument with good and kind genus Lords of Žďár.

Vojtech, from the genus Slavníkovci, was the bishop of Prague bishopric and he was very popular among ordinary people from the Highlands because of his willingness and reliability. This was the reason, why Lords of Žďár asked him to visit their manor. He immediately accepted their invitation and arrived in Žďár. He became very popular and the residents of Žďár persuaded him to stay with them.

Cheaters were so envious so finally Vojtech decided to leave. People blamed Cheaters of his leaving and many farmers decided to go to Lords of Žďár. That was the reason, why one of the Cheaters said horrible curse.

People were really frightened and they hoped that Vojtech will come back and save them.
On the green hill the old hermit Brimota was living in that time. One day he was visited by Vojtech, who went to Bohemia to save people from the curse. When people learned about his arrival, they all came and asked him for help.

Vojtech agreed and he stood on a stone. He started to pray and all people joined him

In that time it started to rain and the grass turned green and streams filled with water. Lords of Žďár thanked to Vojtěch and the decided to expel Cheaters from the Highlands. To remember this unusual day, Lords of Žďár decided to build there a church, and they started to call it the Green Hill.

Natálie Zelinková

Concert organised by Bigy

Filip Vaníček and Jakub Klement

Concert Monastery night

Jakub Klement and Filip Vaníček

Summer

Radka Filipi

Symbolism

Symbolic elements of the church were already admired in history. The basic principle is the composition of the five-pointed star.

Five-pointed star 

Where can we find the symbol?

What does five-pointed star mean?

What does legend says about the symbol?

Tongue 

Where can we find the tongue?

What does the symbol of ball mean?

Ball with five stars 

Where can we find the symbol?

What does symbol mean?

Entrance 

Where can we find the symbol?

What does statues mean?

What does legend says about the entrance?

Daniel Jirman

Václav Vejmluva

Václav Vejmluva was born in 1670. When he was 18 he left his family, who owned a brewery in Brno and came to Žďár. However the same year the church in Žďár burnt and it was not possible to live there, so Václav went to Western Bohemia. After moving here he started to study in Prague and in 1695 he became a priest.

When he came back to Žďár after studying in Prague, the church was renovated by a new abbot Edmund Wagner. At the beginning Vejmluva worked there as an economist and then helped to abbot.

In 1705 the abbot Wagner died, Vejmluva became a new abbot , he was confirmed by the Emperor.

The following years of Vejmluva’s life were dedicated to the unceasing care of the economic and spiritual development of the monastery.

After a few years Vaclav met a young architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. In this time there were formed magnificent buildings, some of the buldings have been preserved up to now. The pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk on the Green Hill is rightly considered the most remarkable building designed by Santini.

In 1737 the monastery set on fire and the fire burnt a large part of the library. The fire had a huge tragic impact on sixty-seven-year-old abbot Vejmluva. The old man didn’t manage to cope with the horrible accident and three days after the fire he died.

Eva Fousová

Jan Blažej Santini Aichel (3. 2. 1677 – 7. 12. 1723)

Jan Blažej Santini Aichel was one of the most famous architects and painters in his period. He was born on 3th February 1677 in Prague as the oldest son of a stone artist. His family supposed that young Santini will continue in the same craft as his father, but he was more interested in art, so his dad helped him to realise his dreams to be an architect. We don't correctly know who was Santini's teacher of art, but it may be Jean Baptista Mathey and Jean Schröder. He travelled around Italy and Austria where he had an oppurtunity to take some experiences, especially of a radical architect Francesco Boromini. 

In 1700 Santini kept his own building company and he could start project monuments. He got unfinished projects by J. B. Matheye after his death and he finished them. He met Wolfgang Lochner who was the first important customer for him a few years later. After this meeting he received lots of contacts to other customers especially abbots of Cistercian monasteries who fancied Aichel's work. Abbots were the most interested people of Santini's work. He worked for abbot Jindřich Snopek from Sedleč, abbot Evžen Tyll for whom Santini built Plasy, for abbot Václav Vejmluva for whom he projected the church on the Green Hill in Žďár nad Sázavou.

He got married Veronika Alžběta, a daughter of Schröder in 1707, in the year when his teacher of art Schröder already died. They had 4 children, but 3 of them (all boys) died as children and only his daughter Anna Veronika survived. In 1720 his wife Veronika died too, so his personal life was not as easy as we could think. These sad events did not break his personality and he got married again and approached to an aristocratic family one year later and started really a new life.

Information about Santini are not clear enough.

Perhaps about 60 monuments were designed and built by him and ten of them are well – known master pieces. I want to mention some of his projects - it is the reconstruction of the gothic cathedral in Sedlec, the project of a church in Křtiny which was not realised exactly according to his plans, project of castle Charles Crown in Chlumec nad Cidlinou or the most famous project of the church on the Green Hill.

Santini was humble during his life so we cannot be suprised that his tomb is not in a famous cemetery, but it is in a small church of St. Jan in Prague. This succesful architect will never be forgettable because his monuments will show us his work for long times and especially his baroque -gothic style is unbelievely monumetal for us nowadays.

Radka Filipi

Way of the cross for young people

On Saturday, 9th March 2013, there was way of the cross for young people on Green Hill. Way of the cross is a very specific Christian tradition. Christians remind themselves the death of Jesus, who died on the cross before Easter. One person brings the cross and the others bring candles and pray. There are 14 stations, at every station there is a short speech and then everybody is thinking  about his or her mind for a while. There are different ways how to organize it. We started in the Basilica Minor and continued around the hill to the Church of st. John Nepomuk. We stopped at different places and that was one station. It was rainy and cold but we stayed until the end. There were 31 people from Žďár and its neighborhood.  Everybody was glad he came despite the bad weather, because it was nice spiritual experience.

Míša Mužátková

The Legend About the Green Hill

Once upon a time there were really bad times for people in Bohemia because the weather was really dry and it had not rained for a long time. The reason of this situation was that the pagan family of Vrsovci had an argument with the bishop Vojtech from the family of Slavnikovci.

Vojtech was the bishop of Prague bishopric and he was very popular among ordinary people from Highlands because of his willingness and reliability. Once he visited the residents of Highlands and they persuaded him to stay with them.

 People were really frightened and they hoped that Vojtech will come back and save them.

On the green hill the old hermit Brimota was living in that time. One day he was visited by Vojtech, who went to Bohemia to save people from the curse. When people learned about his arrival, they all came and asked him for help.

Vojtech agreed and he stood on a stone. He started to

In that time it started to rain and the grass turned green and streams filled with water.

So people started to call this place the Green Hill.

Natálie Zelinková

Why is important to study English?

Simply because we would be able communicate. English is considered to be one of the most important widespread languages and its grammar is not so difficult. Wherever we travel, we can use it. And this is the magic of English. We cannot learn English properly at school by mechanically learning grammar rules to know them by heart. Fluent communication in English is possible when we are forced to speak with somebody who cannot understand our Czech. Our Bishop grammar school has helped me in this way. I could participated in the project of European Union Comenius Bilateral Partnership. Thanks to this project I could visit Finland and I could practice my English for two weeks and work on the team project. It was perfect for me. I stayed in a family where I could speak of course only English and I had to use my knowledge of English from school to complete sentence as good as it was possible. I lost my worries about making mistakes and be lost in a foreign country. My fear was away.

We all make mistakes but we can understand each other!

Thanks to these two weeks my English improved rapidly and I could make new friendships which I developed when my new friends visited our school and Žďár nad Sázavou.

Proč je důležité učit se angličtinu?

Proč je důležité učit se angličtinu? Jednoduše proto, abychom se domluvili. Angličtina patří mezi světové jazyky a její gramatika není zase tolik složitá. Ať pojedeme kamkoli, domluvíme se. A v tom je právě kouzlo angličtiny. Mluvit anglicky se totiž nenaučíme ve škole tím, že budeme znát všechny gramatické poučky nazpaměť. Mluvit anglicky se naučíme, až budeme donuceni mluvit s někým, kdo nám jinak nerozumí. A v tom mi hodně pomohla naše škola. Dala mi možnost zúčastnit se projektu Comenius Partnerství škol. Díky tomuto projektu jsem mohla spolu s dalšími spolužáky odcestovat do Finska a dva týdny mluvit anglicky a pracovat na společném projektu. Byl to pro mě velký přínos. V rodině, kde jsem bydlela, jsem se jinak než anglicky nedomluvila, byla jsem tedy nucena využívat svých znalostí ze školy a skládat věty jak nejlíp to šlo. Ztratila jsem strach z toho, že udělám chybu a celá věta bude špatně, že mi nikdo nebude rozumět. Brzy mi došlo, že můj strach vůbec nebyl oprávněný. Všichni chybujeme, ale i přesto si rozumíme. Díky těmto dvěma týdnům se moje angličtina rozvinula a já měla možnost navázat nová přátelství, která se ještě více utužila, když přijeli naši kamarádi za námi do Žďáru.

28. 2. 2013 Míša Mužátková 

Questionnaire

                             

  

Filip Vaníček and Jakub Klement

History of the Church of St. John of Nepomuk

Why was the monument built? Many people can ask why Santini designed the church on the Green Hill. That is an easy answer but we should go back to the history of the monument.

Václav Vejmluva was an abbot of the monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou since 1705. It was discovered in the tomb of John of Nepomuk in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. Abbot Vejmluva decided to build an extraordinary church near the monastery. The first question was who would be the architect? His decision was clear - Jan Blažej Santini Aichel was a well - known baroque architect, so Václav Vejmluva chose him to make a project of the monument. In 1719 Santini started to work on the project. Václav Vejmluva introduced him his visions about the form of the church on the Green Hill although he did not accept traditions of religious buildings. However he accepted the structure of a pilgrimage destination. Santini tried to project the church as a star, every symbol of the church he designed in detail.

In summer 1719 Santini started his work on the monument. It was extraordinary in that time. The project could not stop him to realize it, such as measuring area, digging and building bottom walls of the future church. It was difficult to ensure available material and people who were working on the project. The first celebration of the church was when a foundation stone was placed in 1720. The building was constructed in the following year and in 1722 it was consecrated. The cloister was built in 1740 but during next years it was quite changed. After basic works it was neccesary to furnish the church. Santini designed the main altar which is made in details especially with a statue of John of Nepomuk. In the project of the church there were not mentioned any cemetery inside the area of the place where the church was. Santini unfortunatelly died before the completion of the church, so other artists had to complete the building.

The church on the Green Hill became the most visited pilgrimage place and lots of baroque events were organised there. Lots of people from further places visited this spectatular monument not only because of religious events even though because of the impressive beauty of the church.. At the beginnings of its existence there was a big fame of this place. However in 1784 the monastery and the church caught fire. In this time the abbot of monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou was Otto Steinbach from Kranichštejn and he did not want to repair damages after the accident. The monument fell into serious disrepair, the roof was broken and it was neccesary to make decisions to rescue the running of the church. People decided to give some money for repairs. It was not enough, the monastery was cancelled and in the church there were only masses to honour St. John of Nepomuk.

A few years later about in the year 1791 citizens of Žďár nad Sázavou and Nové Město na Moravě demanded repairs of the church. So the bishop Lachenbacher accepted demands and allowed only funerals in the church and he banned masses there. People did not agree with his decision and they wanted to change something. The Bishop was angry and he warned people if they did not agree he would demolish the church. Finally the roof was repaired and lots of repairs were made there. The church needed many repairs and it cost lots of money. People who liked the church invested to this repairs and it really helped to hold this pilgrimage place in nowadays form.

Vratislav from Mitronic became a new owner of the church in 1826. The church was a private property in this age and all decisions about the church were private. Unfortunatelly the owner was responsible not only for the parish church but also for the church on the Green Hill. Fortunatelly the owner fell being responsible for the church. Matěj Sychra was interested in the church on the Green Hill and could influence local authorities to save it. He helped to repair the church and in 1729 the church was consecrated again by him. Next year Sychra died.

The weather in the Highlands is sometimes very cold and it has influenced the building very much. Storms ruined the roof , frost destroyed roof frames, so other repairs were neccesary. In this age Josef from Ditrichštejn and countess Clam-Gallasov gave some money to repair it again. The Church on the Green Hill needed more and more repairs and the state wanted to decide about the future owner of the church.

In 1914 the First World War started and the church started to be less important in comparison with the defence of nation. After the war only windows.were changed. The church started to fall into ruin and next disaster appeared - the Second World War.

In 1953 the state became the new owner of the church and it has been since that time.The government has kept the church in a good state and it has repaired everything which has been neccesary. ( Especially in 70s and 80s of 20 century).

The memory became famous not only in former Czechoslovakia but also abroad and lots of people started to visit it again. In 1994 the church of St. John of Nepomuk was written to the list of UNESCO World Heritage.

Nowadays many people from all around the world know this extraordinary monument.Local people are really proud of this monument and they hope that Santini´s work would be never forgotten.

Radka Filipi