Church of Saint Clemens, Baroque church in Odolena Voda, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint Clemens is a Baroque church built by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer in 1733–1735. Its plan overlaps a central oval with a transverse oval for the choir and music gallery, and altar niches form a cross axis. Strongly articulated pilasters accent the walls, and a tower with an onion dome stands at the west front.
Architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer completed construction between 1733 and 1735 during the peak of Baroque style. The building was created during a period of major artistic and religious activity in Bohemia.
The church is dedicated to Saint Clement, whose legend fills the vault of the main nave, painted by the Jesuit mathematician Jan Kuben in 1735–1737. In the transept walls are the Adoration of the Magi and the Resurrection; in the presbytery, the Baptism of the Lord and Saint John the Baptist in stucco frames. A tower statue shows the patron saint.
The church stands on raised ground above the town, with the tower and its onion helm facing west, so the west front is the natural starting point. The nave is laid out as overlapping ovals, and the cross-axis is marked outside by gabled fronts with paired pilasters. The organ sits in two halves beside the west window.
The church's ground plan reworks the scheme Dientzenhofer used at the same time for the Church of Mary Magdalene in Karlsbad: a central oval crossed by a transverse oval for the choir and music gallery, with altar niches forming a cross axis. The organ, with its two-part case flanking the west window, was moved here around 1800 from St. Cajetan in Prague's Malá Strana.
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