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The emperor's former private chapel...
ST. CATHERINE'S
CHAPEL
General
view of the altar part of St. Catherine's Chapel. On the lower part
of the altar table there is a painting The Crucified. In a niche above
the altar table there is a portrayal of the Madonna with Child and Charles
IV in kneeling position with his third consort Anna Svidnicka.
A
narrow passage leads from the
Chapel of Our Lady to the emperor's former private chapel, named St.
Catherine's at a later time.
The chapel is built-in into the massif of the southern wall and after
the Chapel of the Holy Rood it is the most valuable historic monument
at Karlstejn, preserved without interventions during the restoration
of the 19th century.
Initially
this chapel served as a place for sacraments until the time of
the completion of the building of the Chapel of the Holy Rood. The walls
of the chapel are set with precious stones.
This type of decoration has been preserved in the Chapel of the Holy
Rood at Karlstejn, in St. Wenceslas's Chapel in St. Vitus's Cathedral
in Prague and in St. Catherine's Chapel at Karlstejn.
These interiors are absolutely unique on the world scale. The small
connecting passage was also faced with precious stones, but they were
removed before the Renaissance reconstruction of the castle.
Detail
of the door leading to St. Catherine's Chapel.
The
ceiling of St. Catherine's Chapel is vaulted on two cross fields
whose ribs are partly gilded and partly of polychrome. Set in one coping
stone of the vault, near the altar, is a precious stone and in the other
a big antique gemma. Visible on the left side are seven heads belonging
to the provincial patron saints. Originally whole figures or semi-figures
were portrayed here, parts of which were covered with an incrustation
of semi-precious stones evidently still at Charles's time, about 1365,
when the decoration of the Chapel of the Holy Rood was also completed.
The walls of St. Catherine's Chapel are adorned, apart from incrustation,
with very valuable murals. In the niche above the altar there is a painting
of the Madonna with Child with the kneeling figures of Charles IV and
his consort Anna Svidnicka.
The
little Jesus is bending towards the emperor and touching his
hand, this gesture symbolically implying that the sovereigns received
their rank directly from the hands of Christ. The edge of the altar
is decorated with small agates on a gilded base. On the front side of
the altar table there is a painting portraying The Crucifixion. Literature
informs us that it was placed in such a low position in order that it
might be near the emperor when he devoted himself to meditation and
prayer here.
Apart from this, the chapel fulfilled the function of the emperor's
private treasury where valuable reliquaries were kept. Proof of this
lies in two strong doors covered with iron plates decorated with the
Czech lion and the imperial eagle. Above the entrance door to St. Catherine's
Chapel there are more portraits of Charles IV and his consort Anna Svidnicka,
holding a relics cross between them. Charles is portrayed very realistically
here and it is most likely that this is the most faithful portrait of
him.
The
interior of the chapel was supplemented with coloured windows
of which the part with the theme of Christ's Crucifixion has been preserved.
