kaple Narození svatého Jana Křtitele (Kamýk) Chapel

The Chapel of the Born of St. John the Baptist is located in the forest on the southwest side of Mount Plešivec near the village Kamýk in the Litoměřice district. The memorial protected area not only takes the chapel itself, but also the remains of an outdoor pulpit, which was once necessary for extending the service to the open space. The name of the chapel, referring to the birth of St. John the Baptist (not just the memory of the saint), is also specified in the catalogue of the lithomeric diocese.

The history of the place goes deeper than it seems. The original chapel was allegedly located in the same place since 1551 - a construction of the twin-boat type to which William Kamýcký of Kamýka was to be buried. His tombstone is today located in St. Nicholas' Church in the Great Jest. During the Thirty Years' War, especially in the Swedish campaign in 1640, the original building was badly damaged. The new era begins in 1660, when the locality was chosen by the Margrave of Baden Sylvia Kateřina, from the Italian genus Carretto-Millesim and the owner of the Lovosite-Kamýk. She built a new, six-sided central temple here.

The chapel became the center of an intense pilgrimage tradition. Believers were leaving Lovosic, where their journey began at the parish church at 6:00 in the morning. When the number of pilgrims grew, the chapel itself was not enough - people listened to the sermon from the outdoor pulpit near the northwest corner of the building. The interesting thing is that the tradition of bilingual sermons was maintained here until deep into the 19th century, given the language composition of the region: Lovosice on the left bank of the Elbe remained mostly Czech, while the right bank was German speaking. In 1777, the chapel underwent a repair, reminiscent of the years on the remains of the pulpit. The pilgrims were also overcome by the Josephine reforms and the division of the estate among several owners.

The chapel is architecturally characterized by Italian elements, although we do not know the author of the project. The floor plan consists of a regular hexagon with two rows of windows - the lower one is rectangular, the upper one is round. The building is crowned by a high cupola roof with lantern. The interior hides a six-dimensional dome and a late Baroque altar, which originally contained two statues. The stone pulpit fragments with polygonal ground plan, decorated with four relief features of the Renaissance and Baroque style, were preserved in the northern nарia.

The modern history of the chapel is both sad and hopeful. The pilgrims stopped in 1938 after the establishment of the state border, after World War II they only recovered in 1989. The construction gradually became desolate, the exterior pulpit completely destroyed - only a six-sided basalt column with scattered fragments remained. The chapel was repaired after 1990 and the pilgrimage tradition restored by the City Dean of Litomeric Charles Havelka. The new altar painting of St. John the Baptist comes from the lithomeric painter Arnold Richter. The pilgrims are still held around the ceremony on June 24. There is a community educational trail to the chapel.