Chapel of Saint Anne, Religious chapel in Loket, Czech Republic.
The Chapel of Saint Anne is a small Baroque single-nave chapel with a trapezoidal plan and a hipped roof, built in 1744 outside Loket's former main town gate at the start of today's Rooseveltova Street. Its facade has corner pilasters with palmette capitals supporting a curved gable with volutes, a semicircular portal with a keystone, and a cartouche with a Latin chronogram above the entrance. The interior is covered by a cross vault.
The chapel was built in 1744 as thanks that Loket was spared plundering by French troops during the War of the Austrian Succession, on the feast of Saint Anne, 26 July 1742. After the Second World War and the expulsion of the German population it fell into disrepair and its furnishings were largely stolen or destroyed. It has been protected as a cultural monument since 1963 and was reconstructed in 2012 by the Loket firm Elesta s.r.o.
The chapel was built in 1744 as thanks that Loket was spared plundering by French troops during the War of the Austrian Succession, on the feast of Saint Anne, 26 July 1742. The Latin inscription above the portal addresses Saint Anne as protector of the homeland. The wooden statue of Saint Anne with Mary and the child Jesus, 160 cm tall, is now kept in the Sokolov museum.
The chapel stands at the start of Rooseveltova Street, just outside the former main town gate on the northeastern edge of Loket's historic centre. It sits on the outside of a busy bend, so approach on foot from the town centre and take care with traffic. The interior is small and cross-vaulted; four original steps were found about half a metre below the present pavement during the 2021 reconstruction.
During the 2021 reconstruction, probing revealed that four steps originally led into the chapel; the first was found about half a metre below the level of today's pavement. The Baroque statue of Saint Anne with Mary and Jesus, 160 cm tall, now stands in the museum in Sokolov.
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