Church of St. James (Brno)

The church was founded for German inhabitants who lived in this part of the town in the thirteenth century.

There is visible the painted heraldry of mother superior from Oslavany Cistercian monastery with the date 1220 on the vault of the presbytery.

Also the structure of the wall profile between the windows and the shape of the window tracery repeats some of Parléř's characteristic motifs and possibly floral ornaments and beautiful gargoyles at the top of the buttresses which are close to work from Parléř's area.

Norbert Nussbaum pointed out to details of the shaft work, which passes through the windows jambs and the compound piers.

It shows knowledge of the forms, which were used in the lodge at the Cathedral of St. Stephan in Vienna, when there was a master Lorenz Spenning.

In 1515 the finished presbytery was affected by the fire that caused the roof to fall in and it subsequently destroyed all altars.

He added the part with the clock, and the whole tower was finished by Šimon Tauch who put on the top the Renaissance canopy.

The tower's height is 94 m. During the Thirty Years' War, the church was not damaged; so it was not necessary to rebuild it and thanks to this its predominantly florid Gothic shape has stayed conserved.

In 1871 – 1879 the church was radically reconstructed into the Gothic Revival style led by Heinrich Ferstel.

Mr Ferstel removed the Gothic hall and the minor chapels in the south part of the church.

The Gothic Revival parsonage designed by Alois Prastorfer and Germano Wanderley was built in 1900 - 1901.

Due to leaks, for example, it was necessary to replace 2,500 m2 of copper roof sheathing, 9,000 post-World War II window panes with more suitable ones, repair stone linings, restore the organ, and repair or replace crumbling neo-Gothic gargoyles.

April 1661) and Michael Czerny (July 1946), High-ranking cardinal in the Vatican Curia, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with some probability, also (in the oldest original building) Jobst of Moravia, King of Germany.

The catacombs contain approximately 50,000 bones and remains, the largest in Europe after the Paris catacombs¨) There is a famous Brno legend connected with Saint James's church.

The legend is about an indecent man, who is visible in one of the window arches in the south side of the church near Svoboda square.

"It was evidently a stonecutter's joke when he put such statues on the ecclesiastical building" says Jindřich Chatrný from the department of Architecture and Urbanism history in the Museum of Brno city.