Holy Cross chapel, Funerary chapel in Veltrusy, Czech Republic
The Holy Cross Chapel in Veltrusy is a compact Empire-style funeral chapel built of rubble stone with smooth beige lime plaster, completed in 1835 to Heinrich Koch's design. Its front has a tall portal flanked by Doric pilasters, a marble Czech inscription, a triangular pediment with the Kinský coat of arms, and a marble cross above. A thermal window lights the single vaulted room.
Prince Rudolf Kinský had this Empire-style funeral chapel built in 1832–1835 to designs by architect Heinrich Koch, on the spot where his father Ferdinand Jan Kinský died in a riding accident in November 1812. The chapel was consecrated on 4 December 1841. After the Beneš decrees the family lost the property, and it was returned in restitution.
The chapel is dedicated to the Holy Cross and was consecrated on 4 December 1841, on what would have been Prince Ferdinand Jan Kinský's 60th birthday, by Father Jeřábek of Vepřek, who had administered the last rites to Ferdinand. The marble plaque above the portal bears a Czech inscription in early 19th-century orthography, and the tympanum holds the Kinský coat of arms with a princely crown. The sandstone monument in the northwest corner of the grounds once carried Czech and German inscriptions recording Ferdinand's fatal fall in 1812.
The chapel stands on a roughly square plot on Fr. Šafaříka Street, just past the southern edge of the castle park and game reserve. A wall closes it on three sides and a cast-iron fence with massive pillars separates it from the street. A short stone staircase leads to the entrance; the sandstone monument fragment stands in the northwest corner of the grounds.
The sandstone monument in the northwest corner of the grounds originally bore Czech and German inscriptions recording Prince Ferdinand Kinský's fatal fall from his horse in 1812. Only a torso survives, but it marks the exact site of the accident that led to the chapel's construction.
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