The Dominican monastery was established in the newly emerging town according to the Order tradition by King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1247. Even though the establishment by the king is not documented in writing, it is plausible, also in view of the confirmation of other activities by Bruno von Schauenburg, the king’s adviser, in Jihlava. Just like for the Minorites, who had probably come to the town a bit earlier, a site adjacent to the city walls was allotted for the construction of this monastery. The plot was situated on the north-east side of the town, on the site of an older settlement. The old stone church was built near the temporary wooden one during the second half of the 13th century. From the very beginning, the assignment of the Dominican building was completely different to that of the Minorites. The local ordering party looked for inspiration in the most modern buildings of the time, and probably commissioned builders with appropriate qualifications based on that. It might have been connected with the alleged royal establishment, and beyond all doubt with the fact that the Dominicans focused more on the upper class inhabitants. With its verticality, maximum unification and strong brightening, as well as the delicacy of the structural elements of the spacial concept of the church, it clearly refers to the advanced architecture of the classic Gothic style.
The church, or at least part of it, was consecrated in 1261, but construction work on the church probably continued after that date. Based on an assessment of the style of the architectural elements, it seems most likely that the construction was carried out in stages over a relatively long period of time. In the first stage, the perimeter walls of the eastbound chancel, including the windows, were built. This was followed by the triumphal arch, walls of the three-aisled nave and the west frontage. The richly profiled entrance portal of the church probably dates to that time, too. The distinctively oblong chancel ended in a pentagonal structure, and had a sacristy (which has been preserved to this day) adjacent to its east wall. The floor plan of the walls of the main three-aisled nave resembled a square.
In the second stage, most probably occurring in the 1280s, the chancel got a sixpartite vault with two bays and new windows to illuminate the space. The church was probably not completed until the third construction stage, which occurred in the 14th century. In the thriving mediaeval town of the first half of the 14th century, mendicant orders fared well, too. The Dominicans in Jihlava strengthened their position in the town at that time and built the monastery buildings, at least partly, from stone, and the construction of the monastic church was finally completed. The vaulting of the three-aisled nave, probably from this period, features a nine-bay groin vault supported by four pillars in space and by the pillars of the perimeter walls. After a devastating fire in the town in 1353, which resulted in the collapse of the newly built three-aisled nave vault, the church was gradually renovated. Just like in the case of the Minorites, sufficient funds were not collected until three decades later. A possible new vaulting of the three-aisled nave is indicated by the poor connection of the vault ribs to the responds in the walls. In this construction stage, there is a noticeable simplification of the decoration and segmentation of architectonic elements. Such austerity contrasts with the rich segmentation used in the first construction stage, which might be connected with employing a more easily available workforce. It can be assumed that along with the new vaulting of the nave, the church also got a Gothic roof and a small tower on the north-east corner of the three-aisled nave.
The monastery buildings might have been destroyed during the unrest at the time of the Hussite Wars. The monastery was also undoubtedly destroyed by the 1525 fire. However, due to the adherence of a larger part of the population to the Lutheran reformation in the second half of the 16th century, expensive renovations were not on the agenda. In 1604, the town issued an ordinance prohibiting mendicant orders from begging in the town. The result was that the monastery was left more or less desolate for many years. A change came after 1620, when the city was subject to forced re-Catholicisation. Rich Baroque renovations from the second quarter of the 18th century mainly involved the monastery buildings. The only parts carried out of the Baroque renovation plans for the church were the modification of the chancel windows, the building of a new Loreta chapel behind the chancel, and a new roof and new furnishings.
In the second half of the 18th century, the Dominicans in Jihlava fell on hard times, which culminated in the relocation of the brethren along with part of the church equipment to a nearby Jesuit church in 1781. Three years later, the monastery was closed completely by imperial order. For two centuries, the Dominican monastery buildings including the church became the property of the army. An upper storey was built in the church, the presbytery vault demolished, the triumphal arch and windows in the three-aisled nave walled up and the Baroque chapel pulled down. After World War II, the three-aisled nave of the church became the property of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, which renovated the space. In 1990, the monastery premises together with the church presbytery were returned to the Dominicans, who soon after sold the property to a private investor due to its dilapidated condition. The monastery was adapted to a hotel, and the church chancel was renovated. From 2009–2011, further modifications of the premises were made. According to the design by Martin Laštovička, the partition separating the chancel and the three-aisled nave was removed and an imitation of the original sixpartite vault in the presbytery was created.
DN
