Záruba, František: Hradní kaple I. doba přemyslovská

František Záruba's book "Castle Chapels : I. The Premyslid Period" is the first part of his three-volume work on castle chapels in Bohemia (excluding some areas) from the 13th to the 16th century. The overall concept corresponds to this, as in the first part we are introduced to the overall subject and space is also devoted to the history of research. The author also outlines the entire three-volume series. In contrast, the book lacks a typological assessment, which is only available in the third volume. However, this approach is somewhat detrimental if one is uninitiated or does not have access to all the volumes, since especially a layman or even a beginning amateur researcher/interested person must necessarily miss the explanatory glossary of terms, of which there are many in the book. Another problem seems to me to be the prevailing absence of overall castle plans. The author focuses especially on chapels, and so while we learn relatively much about the history or basic development of the castle, as well as the positioning of the chapel within the castle body, the overall architectural plans are mostly missing. However, this can be compensated for if one owns, for example, the "Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Czech Castles" by Tomáš Durdík. Photographic documentation, on the other hand, sometimes shows entire castles. As the author himself points out, he practically does not deal with the painted decoration or the furnishings and appearance of the altars. Unfortunately, there are also some errors in the book (e.g. the year 125, when it is not actually 125, but a date in the range 1250-1259), which can be attributed both to the author and possibly to technical problems in the preparation of the book for printing, which reduces its value somewhat, but not substantially. The black-and-white pictorial appendices, which are included continuously in the text, are abundant and contain mostly photographs and plans, with somewhat fewer historical depictions of castles.


The publication is approximately A5 in size and has 294 pages. After a table of contents, introduction and overview of research, the author then goes on to discuss the origins of medieval castle chapels. Thus, he deals peripherally with the development of such settlements as Starý Plzenec, Buděč, Kouřim, Vyšehrad and the beginning of the first real castles. This is followed by a description of individual castle chapels up to the middle of the 13th century. However, it begins with an exception, namely the Romanesque Chapel of All Saints at Prague Castle, whose origins date back to the 12th century. It then goes on to look at the chapels in the castles of Velešín, Landštejn, Týnec nad Sázavou, Loket, Blatná and finally the chapels of the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The scope of the chapters devoted to individual castle chapels varies according to the state of their preservation, the amount of historical information or the number of reconstructions. It then continues with early Gothic castle chapels from the second half of the 13th century onwards. Here he starts with the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and then the early Gothic chapels in the castles of the Bohemian kings. This is followed by a number of castles - Jindřichův Hradec, Zvíkov, Písek, Houska, Myšenec, Křivoklát, Hluboká nad Vltavou, Kamýk nad Vltavou, Chrudim, Bezděz, Nižbor and Osek / Rýzmburk. He also discusses the chapels in the bishop's castles - the Bishop's Palace at Prague Castle, Roudnice nad Labem, Horšovský Týn and the Bishop's Court in the Lesser Town in Prague. The following section deals with the origins of castle chapels in aristocratic castles. The castle at Čtyřkol, Český Šternberk and Okoř are described. In view of the close association directly with castle chapels, it deals with chapels and the endowment of chapels. This is followed by a concluding summary, after which there is a rather extensive note apparatus and an even more extensive German resume. The sources and literature used are also quite voluminous. Finally, the book concludes with a list of illustrations and an index of sites.