The silver mining and processing complex in the Vrbické Hory area, 9.5 km NNW of Světlá nad Sázavou was one of the most important early modern period mining sites in the Czech-Moravian Highlands. The deposit, mined in two stages from 1547 to the early 1590s, provided several hundred kilograms of the precious metal. The stopes, which extended to a depth of approx. 80 m, ran along three principal vein zones, partly drained through hereditary adits, with further prospecting work in the area. The mined ore was smelted on site; mineral processing and metallurgical plants could take advantage of the energy system of the reservoirs on the nearby watercourses, and two mining settlements appeared by the mines. The mining was funded by numerous investors from Bohemia and Germany (burghers, nobles, officials, mining and coin experts). However, there was also significant involvement on the part of the landed nobility: the frequently alternating owners of the land on which mines were situated included the ruler, imperial princes, higher- and lower-ranking nobles and wealthy burghers. However, mining was complicated by the area’s position on the boundaries of several estates and interference from landowners, disagreements amongst miners and persistent drainage problems. This study, based on the latest field prospecting surveys and revision of the available written sources summarises our existing knowledge and highlights the potential for further research., Jiří Doležel., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The article publishes an as yet unknown fundamental report on the history of the Cistercian Monastery in Sedlec near Kutná Hora and its Gothic Convent Church of the Assumption of Our Lady and Saint John the Baptist. According to annals dating back to the mid-fifteenth century, namely folio 169v in codex Mk 108 of the Moravian Library in Brno, the foundation stone for the new Convent Basilica was laid in 1304 by the Bohemian King Wenceslas II. This record thus gives a precise date for the commencement of work to build this exceptional example of Gothic architecture and presents further proof of the close ties between Wenceslas II and the Cistercian order and Heidenreich, the abbot of Sedlec. and Jiří Doležel.
The study newly identifies a woman depicted in relief on a sandstone tympanum, walled-in secondarily in building Reg. No. 72 in Tišnov in Moravia. The tympanum can be assigned to the second half of the 1230s or to the 1240s, with its vegetable décor matching in detail a similar motif on the well-known western portal of the church of the Cistercian convent at Porta Coeli at Tišnov. Characteristic features establish the woman as being Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207-1231), a major person in European spirituality of the 13th C., canonised in 1235. This is, then, evidence of very early reception of the new saint in the Czech Lands, clearly inspired by tight dynastic ties: the Czech queen - widow Constance of Hungary, who founded the Porta Coeli convent in 1232, was Elisabeth’s aunt by bloodline. The sculpture is at the same time one of the very oldest artistic depiction of Saint Elisabeth in the European context, with typical accent on the saint’s tight ties to the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi. Nevertheless, we do not yet know the original location of the tympanum, but apart from the site of Porta Coeli itself the parish church of Saint Wenceslas at Tišnov does fall into consideration. and Jiří Doležel.