Premyslid Crucifix, Gothic wooden crucifix at Strahov Monastery, Czech Republic.
The Přemyslid Crucifix is a polychromed wooden crucifix from the first half of the 14th century, displayed in the Picture Gallery of Strahov Monastery in Prague. Christ's body, including arms, is 245 cm tall with an arm span of 158 cm, and the cross itself is 309 cm high. The cross is shaped like a deeply branching tree trunk with sawn-off branches, representing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Probably carved around 1330 in Germany, the crucifix came to Jihlava in the 14th century for the Dominican Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross, founded in the mid-13th century; legend instead credits Ottokar I or II. After the Josephine reforms the Dominicans moved in 1781 to the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius, and the cross later passed to St. James the Great, under Strahov from 1591. It was restored in Prague in 1994–1997 and declared a national cultural monument in 2010.
The name recalls a legend linking the cross to King Ottokar I or II, though it was probably carved around 1330 and brought from Germany. It stood in the Dominican church in Jihlava, then in a glazed late Rococo altar in the Jesuit church of St. Ignatius. Since 2012 a synthetic-resin replica has stood in Jihlava's Church of St. James.
The crucifix hangs in the Picture Gallery of Strahov Monastery in Prague, not in Jihlava: since 2012 a synthetic-resin replica has stood in Jihlava's Church of St. James the Great because of unsuitable climate there. Look for the glazed late Rococo altar setting it once had in the Jesuit church; the original cross is spruce in the centre and maple in the fork.
The sculpture also served as a reliquary: an opening in Christ's head held relics. The long locks of hair visible in older photographs were later additions, removed during the 1994–1997 restoration.
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