Journal ARS 34 (2001) 2-3

Martin VANČO

Kláštorná architektúra Veľkomoravskej ríše
[The Great Moravian Monastery Churches]

(Summary)

The paper deals with the problem of the L. Galuška’s interpretation of Ecclesiastical buildings situated on the mount Sady near Uherské Hradiště. The most problematic part of his book is the analysis of the genesis and origin of the east and west part of the main church. Galuška assumed that the eastern part of the church consisting of the three nave basilica had been built by Passau and Aquileia's missionaries in the beginning of the 9th Century. The essential mistake of his hypothesis was that he presumed that the eastern church had been laid out without the transept. The well known disposition might have been arisen from the change of the original project during the construction. In accordance with V. Hrubý he was convinced that the western part of the church had been built later, after the year 863, after the arrival of the Byzantine mission of Cyrilus and Methodius. He adjusted the origin of the graves situated in the interior of the western part of the church according to that dating.

The author analysis the basic presumptions of the Galuška's interpretation which came from the incorrect results of the previous researchers. He criticised for example the conclusions published by J. Cibulka concerning the origin of the church with the cross disposition which might have been derived from the mausoleum Galla Placidia in Ravenna from the 5th Century. As a matter of fact that hypothesis is hardly feasible because the cross shaped basilica (such as one in Sady) was already created during the Constantinian period, i.e. St. John basilica in Laterano. In G. Bandmann's and R. Krautheimer's opinions this type had been spread out all over the Christian World. The basilica was used in the Mediterranean as well as in the western Pre-Romanesque architecture. The main idea of the author is the presumption that Sady were laid out to be the double choir church, such as the Carolingian monastery churches in St. Gallen, Reichenau-Mittelzell, Einhard's basilicas, Münstereifele and many others which were built after the reformation of monasteries that had taken place in Inden/Aix-la Chapelle 816 – 817 under the leadership of Benedict of Anian.

The supporting ideas of this paper are based on the presumption that the main parts of the church in Sady, e.g. eastern and western parts, were built in two phases in the first half of the 9th Century, such as the churches in Fulda or Reichenau-Mittelzell. It seems that the basic construction point was a system of squares that correspond to the final length of the whole church. This system of the construction planning is the same as the one of the reform Carolingian churches i.e. the ideal project of St. Gallen. This can be proved by the dedication of the Sady church.

From the written documents from the 10th – 13th Centuries it is known that some churches of Holy Virgin and St. Peter were situated on a hill, not far from the Kunovice village. In contrast to many other researchers the author supposes that both dedications are connected with the Sady church. This idea can be supported again by the Carolingian monastery churches whose eastern part used to be dedicated to Holy Virgin and the western part to St. Peter by Romano more.

All things considered it is probable that the Sady church was originally the monastery church closely connected to the bishop residence in Passau which used to be the missionary centre for the Moravia empire during the first half of the 9th Century.