Chapel of Corpus Christi, Gothic cemetery chapel near St Barbara Cathedral in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.
The Chapel of Corpus Christi is a High Gothic chapel on the edge of a rocky spur beside St Barbara's Church in Kutná Hora. Its single square hall has three by three bays of cross-ribbed vaulting, with ribs springing directly from the walls and four supporting columns. Only the lower of two planned storeys was built, entered by a stair on the west side.
The chapel was founded in the mid-1380s by the Brotherhood of the Body of Christ as a cemetery chapel with an ossuary, just before construction of St Barbara's Church began. The Prague building lodge was invited to build it. The Jesuits later adapted the entrance with a Baroque portal; after their order was dissolved at the end of the 18th century the chapel lost its religious use.
The chapel's name comes from the Feast of Corpus Christi, and from the mid-17th century it was listed under that patronage. After the Jesuit order was dissolved at the end of the 18th century, the building served as an organ workshop and then a warehouse before falling into disrepair. Since 1997–2000 it has hosted tours and small chamber cultural events.
The chapel stands on the edge of a rocky spur beside St Barbara's Church and is reached by a staircase on its west side. It is open for guided tours and occasional small cultural events; the single lower floor is the only one built of the planned two. The Jesuit Baroque portal marks the entrance they reworked.
The chapel was planned with two storeys, but only the lower one was built; a portal for the unfinished upper floor survives in the small room above the Baroque entrance porch. A second, later walled-up south portal is visible only by the top of its pointed arch.
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