Chapel in Radeč, Chapel-shrine in Radeč, Czech Republic.
The Chapel of the Virgin Mary in Radeč is a small single-nave building with a semicircular apse, its altar oriented to the north. Two pairs of small rectangular windows with rounded tops light the nave, and a hexagonal bell turret rises above the roof. The architecture imitates classicist forms, and the chapel stands on the boundary between the Úpice and Radeč cadastral areas, though it belongs entirely to Radeč.
The chapel was built in 1892 by the Ježek couple, who owned the inn in Radeč; the architect was probably the sculptor Pátý from Podradeč, a suburb of Úpice. It soon became a local pilgrimage site, though chronicler Vilém Schreiber recorded that the pilgrimage legend, a thirteen-year-old boy cured in 1890 by water from the spring, was a fraud meant to bring the innkeeper profit. Pilgrimages were then banned by the church and later tolerated again; the spring dried up and private pilgrimage continued until the 1970s. The chapel was never church property, always belonging to Radeč families, and was granted heritage protection on 25 November 1993.
The chapel was built in 1892 by the Ježek couple, who ran the inn in Radeč, and it soon became a local pilgrimage site tied to a spring beside it. The Úpice chronicler Vilém Schreiber later called the pilgrimage legend a fraud meant to bring the innkeeper hungry and thirsty pilgrims. Pilgrimages were then banned by the church and only later tolerated; the spring dried up over the years, but private pilgrimage continued until the 1970s.
The chapel stands on the boundary between the Úpice and Radeč cadastral areas, though it belongs entirely to Radeč. It is a small single-nave building with its altar oriented to the north, so the entrance side faces south. The spring that once stood by the chapel dried up over the years.
The chapel was never church property; it always belonged to a Radeč family. The bell in the hexagonal roof turret was cast in 2009 by the owner as thanks for the birth of his son. The spring beside the chapel, once credited with a 1890 healing, dried up over the years.
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