Liturgical calendar
- Dnes je: 24.04.2018
- Občanský kalendář: Jiří
- Církevní kalendář: sv. Jiří
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Biblical quote
History
Now you are at the oldest surviving wooden church in the Teschen Silesia, in city of Třinec, urban district Guty. Its beginnings are going back to the half of the 16th century. Not only archaic architectonic forms gives evidence of it, but also the year 1563 on the small portal inside and the bell with year 1565 are convincing. At that time the most dominant religion of the inhabitants living in Teschen princedom was Lutheran. The period, when the church belonged to Protestants, remind few material relics inside the church. The church was taken away from Protestants by the recatholization commission on the 23 March 1653 and handed over to the administration of Catholic priests from Střítež. The parts of the parish districts were besides Střítež and Guty also Nebory, Oldřichovice, Rakovec, Řeka, Smilovice and Tyra. All these villages kept their Protestant character regardless of recatholization pressures during the whole half of the 17th century. A bigger amount of Catholics lived in the centre of parish district in Střítež.
The first more detailed written information about the church in Guty brings the visit report from 1679. It is written there: In the village of Guty is situated a filial church of parish church of Střítež. It is a wooden building, has the patrimony of the Corpus Christi and doesn’t seem to be consecrated. The parish fair takes place on the Sunday after the feast of St Hedwig. The church has one not consecrated altar, for the Masses is used the portable altar. Portable baptismal font is well locked. The pulpit, comfortable banks, floor paved with bricks, confessional. The holy water font at entrance is missing. There are three bells in the wooden tower; the roof is in a good condition. Locked cemetery is without main cross. Also the morgue is missing…
The visit report is speaking about the fact, that the church was not consecrated. In the church inventory from 1804 we can find a reference that the church had been consecrated by Bishop of Cracow Mikuláš Oborski on January 8 1661.
Other surviving visiting reports confirm this information. They are completed with other interesting information. E. g. from 1688 we know about wooden sacristy on the left side of the church. It had wooden floor and was established to be small. The altar was decorated by new painting and the masses had been served every fourth Sunday. The preaching in Czech took place after the service. All festive church services went on in Střítež.
In 1781 the originally separate standing bell tower was connected with nave. The fact, that the most of local inhabitants claimed themselves as Protestants after the Patent of Tolerance issued by Joseph II in 1781; we owed that the rare renaissance and baroque equipment survived till today. In 1801 only two Catholics lived in Guty. Even the sexton was a Protestant. In 1812 the new bell was acquired.
The church inventory from the half of the 19th century gives a valuable testimony about its pitiful state. The most rotten wall at the main altar caused decline of the building. Also the tower bell was very shabby and only with difficulty resisted to the rains and snow falls. In 1863 the general reconstruction within the 300th Anniversary of church establishing took place. Its part was also the new stone pavement. The choir was equipped with new organ. Next reconstructions of the church in Guty were undertaken from the initiative of the priest Śliwka in 1877. On the beginning of the 20th century the existence of the church was seriously endangered. Former priest from Střítež Kołodziej left in his last will a big financial sum for the parish of Střítež. The highest amount was dedicated for the construction of the new church in Guty which should replace the wooden one. The preservation care was just about to be born. So, there is no surprise, that in those days the old wooden churches in Bystřice, Hažlach, Třanovice or Vrbice at Bohumín were replaced by new ones. But, the First World War didn’t favour to the construction of brick church.
During the inter-war period the Protestants of Guty tried to gain back the Corpus Christi Church. According to the census of 1921 there lived 826 people in Guty, 706 of Protestant denomination. At the beginning of 1922 local Protestants asked for restitution of the church to redeem the violent confiscation by Catholics in 1654. Another argument for restitution was that the most of local people would not have to go a long way to the Protestant church in Komorní Lhotka. In the end, the chapel was built at the Protestant cemetery, which satisfies the needs of local Protestants till today.
The period of the First Czechoslovak Republic was a time when the preservation care begun to mind the church in Guty. This building was guarded not only as a relic of folk architecture but also as a proof of Czech origin of this region. This proof was seen in the Czech inscriptions and material relics inside the church. In 1936 there was a plan to transfer the church from Guty to Brno, Český Těšín or Frýdek from the security reasons. The State Nation Heritage Institution pushed through the keeping of the church at his original place. More expensive reconstructions were undertaken during the 1950s and at the beginning of our century. On January 2001, an unknown perpetrator stole from the bell tower the bell from 1569. The bell was soon found, but without the bell heart.
During 2011–2012 the church in Guty underwent very exacting reconstruction. Mainly the roof and rafters were hardly damaged. The cover – wooden shingles were replaced as well as rotting rafters. The bell tower was completely dismantled, the new oak foundations and new parts of tower was made. The stainless cross on the tower from 1985 was replaced by forge one. To the copper ball under the cross was put message and souvenirs for next generations including contemporary banknotes and coins. During the reconstruction of the church, the sewerage system was developed. Its absence caused a severe damage of the church. The site of the cemetery was provided by new wooden fencing (instead of original wire mesh). The surroundings of the church were supplemented with bicycle stands and inquiry table. All the activities would not be possible without the financial support of parishioners from Guty. The project partners were also the Ostravian-Opavian Bishopric, city of Třinec and City Library of Třinec.
The Corpus Christi Church in Guty is a wooden one-nave longitudinal building with orthogonal finished presbytery. The pyramidal bell tower reaches height of 15,6 metres (with ground plan 7,9 x 7,9 metres). Until 1781 the tower stood separately. It is ended by onion roof, which is decorated with wainscoting in the sticking out bell storey. The nave (7 x 7,8 metres) runs around covered gallery, colloquial called sobota. Such gallery we can find also around the presbytery with size 5,5 x 5,4 metres. This gallery protected people against bad weather. The sacristy fit closely to it from the left side and its size is 4,3 metres x 1,9 metres. The roof of nave as well as of the presbytery is covered by shingles. The architecture of the church in Guty has all marks of ancient sacral buildings. The middle-age tradition can be seen primarily in a high and steeple saddle-shaped roof and in flat ending of the presbytery. The width of the beams, from which the church is built, is admirable. In some places it has more than a half of metre. The beams are from longitudinal halved fir trees. The church in Guty is similar to the vanished wooden church of St Bartholomew in near village of Třanovice. The church in Guty is the oldest survived wooden sacral building in the Teschen Silesia region. A little bit younger is the church of St Nicholas in Nýdek from the 1570s. It has similar ground plan as the church in Guty, but without built up belfry.
The church in Guty is surrounded by a cemetery, originally used for dead people of both denominations. In 1882 Protestants built their own cemetery in the upper part of the village. In 2012 cemetery was provided by new wooden fencing, instead of original wire mesh.
Now we are entering the main entry of the Corpus Christi Church, which surprises the visitor by an amount of precious and quality material relics and decoration. Our tour we start on the left side from the main entry. By the look up we discover the nave has a flat ceiling and the presbytery is vaulted with wooden barrel vault, which has only decorative purpose. In the triumphal arch of the church – in the space between presbytery and nave – are placed wooden boards with pictures of Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist. These paintings are from the second half of the 17th century by unknown artist. They were part of Calvary scene, the central cross vanished. On the left wall under the gallery catch our attention three large canvases. They were used as didactic devices by Jesuits from Těšín and they are from the first half of the 18th century. Very near to the main entry, under the choir, painting with motive of seven sacraments accompanying the life of Catholic is placed. Its central part is filled by oval medallion with monstrance and host. It should symbolize the sacrament of Eucharist as the central point of life of every Catholic. Medallions along sides represent six more sacraments. Until these days only baptism, confession and confirmation are still visible. Further there were depicted: Sacrament of diseased, marriage and priesthood. In the lower part of the picture is placed, now a day, unreadable text and year 1739.
The middle painting with the motive of the Holy Trinity is dated 1738. The figure of Christ standing on the globe with images of sun and moon handing cross to God the Father and Holy Spirit dominates the picture. Both last mentioned figures are drawn as old men with sceptres and papal tiaras on their heads. The scene is supplemented by angels and Virgin Mary with St Joseph. Another missionary painting under the choir depicts the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The angel in the upper part of the painting holds a bullhorn from which a ribbon with inscription Victory of honesty and truth waves. From the sceptre in his left hand wave three ribbons with inscription He can, is capable and wants help. On the left side of the picture we can see a ribbon with the inscription Jesus Christ praised. In the central motive we can see the figure of the resurrected Christ and an angel rolling away a grave stone. Along sides of the oval are next two angels with olive twigs. In the lower part of the picture are depicted Jerusalem, Golgotha and frightened Roman soldiers.
The renaissance epitaph reminds about protestant past of the church of Guty. Its central motive, the resurrection of Christ is tempera on wooden painting. The frame is decorated by carving. This epitaph was made probably in Těšín in 1620. It belongs to an unknown family descending from burgher or nobility class. The lower part is a “group portrait” of kneeing family (left father with two sons, right mother and three daughters).
Now we are in the presbytery. At first we concentrate our attention to a side altar of the Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary on the left side. The altar is crowned with an extension fitted with gilded Marian chronogram on the background of the blue hexagram shaped star and radial gloriole. There are two plastics placed on it – of St Apollonia with attributes of pliers and cross and of St Helen, holding originally a torso of found St Cross.
Right from the side altar is portal of the entry to the sacristy with carved year of 1563, what is the date of establishment of the church. Next to it, there is hanging on wall the largest of the four missionary canvases from the first half of the 18th century. This painting depicts the Old Testament story – Daniel’s prophecy to Babylonian king Belshazzar. In the upper part of the oval we can see the hand appearing from the cloud drawing on the wall of the feast hall between two windows three angels. Every of the angels are holding a laurel medallion. On the first the sculls is depicted, on the others are hand with dry tree and crossed swords. Under every medallion there is an inscription in Czech and Latin Plague Mane; Hunger Thekel; War Phares. In the middle of the feast scene is the figure of the prophet Daniel and in the front of the right table is collapsed king surrounded by courtiers. On the both tables we can see vessels stolen from the Jewish temple of Jerusalem which they desecrated during the feast. In the lower part of the picture is an inscription in Czech What had Daniel predicted to Babylonian king, let God, nobody to show.
The presbytery is dominated by main baroque altar from the half of the 18th century with younger painting of the Last Supper. Along sides the altar is decorated by rich carved ears with plant motives. The altar extension is fitted by the plastic of the Eye of God in a triangle. The altar is completed on the sides by plastics of St Joachim and St Ann, parents of Virgin Mary. The tabernacle is white coated and completed by plastics of angels.
On the right side on the confessional we can see one from the most precious relics of the church in Guty – the original renaissance main alter from the Protestant period. The altar was acquired by knights Jiří Sobek of Kornice and Jiří Neborský of Nebory in 1591. Their coloured escutcheons are drawn in the lower part of the altar together with the year and their initials. The central point is the picture with the motive of Last Supper. Over the painting is Czech inscriptions Take and eat, this is my body for you, take and drink, and this are my blood for you. In the upper part of the altar is placed younger, baroque extension with oil painting of St Sebastian.
From the presbytery we are going back around the wooden confessional and font to the nave. When we stop, our attention is attracted by the unique painted gallery in the “L” shape with fragments of Czech inscriptions from 1626 and 1642. The author of the decoration from 1642 is Štěpán Sova from neighbouring village of Nebory. Paintings as well as inscriptions on the choir are rare examples of church decoration from the time of the Thirty-Years-War in the region of the Teschen Silesia.
On the wall left from the side entry we can see hanging antependium (hanging blanket of altar top). It is oil painting with the motive of souls in purgatory flames. Some of them have iron handcuffs. Over them is hovering little angel with host commemorating to the souls forgiveness through Eucharist. In the foreground there are placed charts with Latin quotations from Old Testament Books of Job and Psalms. The renovation of the antependium realized painter František Václav Těšínský from Místek in 1809.
Before we leave the church inside through the main entry, we add that its impressive atmosphere complete the younger pictures of 14 Stations of the Cross with Polish inscriptions, procession banners or the lamp of Eternal Light hanging in the presbytery in front of the main altar.
You visited the Corpus Christi Church in Guty, which is one of the oldest and most precious sacral buildings in region of the Teschen Silesia. Its walls remember about dramatic time of religion war as well as about peaceful time. Thanks to the care of local parishioners, priests and last but not least of State National Heritage Institute we can today admire its quaintness and skills of our forefathers.
Thank you for your visit.
Střítež A.D. 2012
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