The creation of the Chapel of the Divine Heart of the Lord (Kaple Božského Srdce Páně ) was closely connected with the congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo order in Jihlava. The first three sisters came to Jihlava on the 29th November 1883, at the request of a Catholic orphanage association established in 1873. In the same year, funds were collected and a house on Řeznická (now Havířská) Street was rented for the care and education of orphans in Jihlava. According to the congregation’s archive, 10 orphans were taken care of there. However, the capacity of the premises was insufficient, and the sisters began looking for new premises.
In the autumn of 1885, the congregation managed to purchase house no. 118 on Křížová Street. They moved in on March 1886 and consecration was performed on the 8th April 1886. The purchase of the house from the congregation’s own funds fundamentally changed the relationship with the association. The association left the care for orphans fully in the hands of the Order and granted it 110 guldens per orphan a year. At the same time, the city purchased the adjacent house, no. 33 (demolished in the 1970s), which was associated with the so-called Höck Foundation. The house was connected with the orphanage. In 1891, the congregation purchased two more houses on U Kasáren Street, no. 116 and 117.
The entire orphanage complex was finally completed by the construction of a multi-purpose building with a chapel that was carried from 1903 to 1904. The existing chapel located in one of the rooms of house no. 118 was insufficient, and there was an urgent need for indoor premises for the children’s social activities. The sisters commissioned the Jihlava town builder Karl Wagner with the construction of a new building. The design of the building went through an interesting development. Originally, the building was supposed to be crowned by a low spire roof, and the bell tower was supposed to be wider, with a low octagonal spire. But the sisters rejected the design and Karl Wagner drew up a new one on the 7th and 10th September 1903. The construction was started during the autumn of 1903 and headed by M. Kriegsmann. The chapel was consecrated on the 3rd November 1904 and dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to the Mährische Grenzböte newspaper, the celebration in the garden of the Catholic orphanage was attended by a number of prominent figures, for example Vinzenz Inderka, the mayor of Jihlava, Theonilla Meindlová, Mother Superior of the convent, and priest Ignác Beckert, consistorial councillor, who gave a speech and led the Holy Mass.
The architect Wagner conceived the building in the Neo-Romanesque style with elements of the Beuron art school. On the west side, it is connected by a half-timbered walkway with building no. 118 on Křížová Street, and in the south-east by another walkway with houses no. 116 and 117 on U Kasáren Street. A slim octagonal bell tower crowned by a spire roof is a prominent feature on the east side of the chapel. It houses a bell from 1904 requisitioned during World War I.
Below the bell tower windows, it is decorated with a stucco rosette segmented by a circle relief, hexafoil tracery and six-pointed star. The concept of the rosette testifies to the influence of the Beuron school on the architecture of the building. In the Beuron canon, defined by its founder Desiderius Lenz, the circle is a symbol of life. The hexafoil within the circle symbolises the geometric canon of the depiction of the human body, and the six-pointed star the mystery of creation. Desiderius Lenz drew inspiration for his canon from the texts of the Old and New Testaments and from the Hebrew Kabbalah.
A significant external influence of the Beuron artistic style on the morphology of the chapel is also evidenced by Karl Wagner’s second construction plan of the 7th September 1903, which originally depicted the inside of the relief as a Neo-Gothic rosette with eight-petal tracery and a circle in the middle. Under the relief, there is a cartouche with the date 1903–1904 and a medallion with a statue of Archangel Michael, clad in an ancient toga, holding the sword of justice in one hand, and a pair of scales in the other. Wagner’s original plan envisaged a segmental window here. The façade is segmented by rustication strips on the ground floor and bossage upstairs.
The architect conceived the north side of the building as a six-section construction. The smooth façade is separated from the first floor by a cornice and an arched frieze. The chapel body is characterised by pilasters and four segmental windows on the first floor, the façade of the staircase section is given plasticity by the horizontal rustication. The frontage culminates in a low attic, irregularly broken by small windows.
In the communication staircase section, handrail fittings with floral motifs have been preserved. The staircase landings are covered by the original tiles with geometric and plant motifs typical of the Beuron school. The ground floor houses a multi-purpose ballroom with a stage, which can be separated by a screen. The architect placed the chapel in the space above the ballroom, taking up more than two floors. The choir on the second floor is fitted with wrought-iron railings with plant motifs.
The chapel interior consists of an oblong nave with a flat ceiling and four segmental windows on each side. The original stained-glass windows featuring clear glass with lily motifs have been preserved in several places. The east side of the nave ends with a presbytery in the form of an apse. Nowadays (2023), the chapel is painted white, covering the original Beuron school style paintings. All we know about the author of the paintings is his name preserved on a sign in a truss. It reads A. Österreicher, painter. He was probably the designer of the building’s morphology with elements of the Beuron art school.
Based on period photographs, the apse had an altar of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, with a statue of Christ with his arms spread. The victory arch was lined with a quotation from St. Matthew’s Gospel, which translates as: “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened.” The author conceived the paintings in the Beuron style, with geometric and floral motifs. In both corners of the front wall of the presbytery, a pair of angels in ancient togas were depicted. Two castellated rosettes decorated with images of angels – one of them holding a censer and the other one a ciborium – have been preserved in the apse to this day. The morphology of the space is accentuated by a massive door with elements of Neo-Gothic traceries. The pair of doors leading to the sacristy and to the connecting section of the south-east wing features traceries.
On 27th September 1950, the Sisters of Mercy were forcibly interned in Město Albrechtice near Krnov. At the same time, the orphanage ceased functioning, and from 1953, the premises were used as boarding facilities for a nursing school. The chapel served as a study or dining room for the students. The original function was restored on the 3rd September 2006. A consecration ceremony was held in the Chapel of the Divine Heart of the Lord (Kaple Božského Srdce Páně), and the presbytery received a new altar according to the design by the architect Martin Laštovička. The new altar is in the form of a cross made of spruce wood, and symbolic light radiating from the heart of the cross.
The unique character of the well preserved chapel is given by its connection with the Beuron art school. No other similar building connected with this artistic style exists in Moravia. Since 2004, the entire building complex with the chapel, including the houses on Křížová and U Kasáren Streets, has once more been in the possession of the congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo. It serves as a hall of residence for students of the Holy Mother School, with a capacity of 61. The school and the Chapel of the Divine Heart of the Lord are connected with clergyman Bohdan Sroka (born 1932), founder and long-time headmaster of the school, member of the underground church, musician and children’s author. Bohdan Sroka still celebrates regular Monday masses in the chapel. In 2015, the building with the chapel was declared a cultural monument.
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