loretánská kaple v Římově Chapel

The Loretánská Chapel in Římov in the Českobudějovicko region stands in a pilgrimage complex in the middle of the village. It is surrounded by colonnades and the Church of the Holy Spirit. The entire complex is protected as a cultural monument and in 2018 it was declared a national cultural monument.

The story of this place begins with the Jesuits from Český Krumlov. In 1626 they acquired an estate of a former fortress on a ridge above the Malší River and established a boys' seminary there. Then in 1650, the coadjutor of the Krumlov Jesuit college, Father Jan Gurre, founded a Loretanian pilgrimage site in Římov. At its center stood the Loretánská Chapel, also called Santa Casa.

The chapel is a simple prismatic structure with no articulation. On the outside it measures 11.90 by 7.36 meters and is approximately 6.6 meters tall. The floor plan is designed so that along one longer side and the shorter back side runs a corridor with stairs to the upper floor. On both longer sides there are two entrances each, and on the shorter side there is a small window. Inside the chapel is decorated with imitations of old Lorentian frescoes and displays a statue of the Virgin Mary, a sculpture from the 17th century.

Around the chapel a single-story colonnade grew up in 1658 and in 1685 it received ceiling paintings. In the same year 1658 a Way of the Cross began from the chapel, later expanded to 25 stations.

On the eastern side of the colonnade, the small Church of the Holy Spirit was completed in 1697. It is a baroque rotunda with a flat ceiling and an apse. Facing the arcaded courtyard is a two-story choir gallery structure crowned with a broad triangular gable.

In 1685 a common protective wall encircled the pilgrimage site and the Jesuit residence. The main gate from the courtyard leads to a small courtyard and from there steps lead up to the entrance to the colonnade. The Santa Casa was then reached by a two-story arcaded passageway, to which an entrance tower was added in 1891.

The former rebuilt fortress that the Jesuits used as a summer residence now serves as a parish office. The Římov Madonna had an impact beyond southern Bohemia. It was dedicated to the thirty-third chapel of the Holy Path from Prague to Stará Boleslav, which the Jesuits founded in 1674.