Pustevny

[Pustevny]   [Chapel]   [Radegast]   (Cyril and Methodeus)

The Chapel of St. Cyril and St Methodius

In 1881 Hynek Fialka, a member of the Občanská Beseda in Frenštát, suggested that a chapel be built on the top of the mountain at Radhošť. His suggestion was generally approved and carried out, although slowly and with many difficulties. On the occasion of St. Methodius´s millennium a group of Moravian pilgrims led by the Olomouc archbishop Antonín Cyril Stojan arrived in Rome where Pope Leo XIII consecrated the portrait of Jan Sarkander, designed for the future chapel.

The building costs were estimated at 10,000 gold coins. Alois Fialka was elected chairman of the committee responsible for building the chapel. Public collection organised by this committee brought in 3,500 gold coins. In 1895 Emil Kostelník became chairman of the committee, and the same year he purchased a painting, "Walachian Madonna" by Adolf Liebscher at the Folklore Exhibition in Prague. With this painting he travelled all over Moravia and Bohemia and collected another substantial sum to cover the expected costs: 7,500 gold coins. The land on which the chapel was to be built had been donated by the archbishop of Olomouc Theodor Kohn, who also accepted the patronage over the chapel. Count Rudolph Kinsky of Rožnov estate donated some of his land in Dolní Bečva estate as well. It was therefore decided to dig the foundations of the chapel half on Rožnov and half on Frenštát land.

The corner stone of Radhošť chapel was consecrated on July 5th 1896 and the completed chapel on September 11th 1898 by Olomouc archbishop Theodor Kohn. 

Architect Skibinsky designed the chapel in the Byzantine style, which was to symbolise the Byzantine origin of both saints. The main altar in the chapel is the work of sculptor Neumann from Kroměříž. In 1904 Liebscher´s "Wallachian Madonna" was placed on the side altar in the right-hand part of the chapel. Its original has been recently replaced with a copy painted by Otakar Pavlovský. Another altar, on the opposite side of the chapel, has been decorated by Pieta (the image of mourning Saint Mary holding the body of dead Christ). The eight mosaic windows of the chapel depict scenes from Cyril and Methodius´s lives, and also from lives of St. Hedvika, St. Ludmila and St. Jacob of Nepomuk. The inscription above the door to the chapel expresses the desire for unity of Christians of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches: "Love one another, Slavs, be one in faith preached by St. Cyril and St Methodius."

In 1906 the new archbishop, Frank Bayer, visited Radhošť, and later on commissioned a new road to be built from Frenštát to Pustevny. A tablet unveiled at the so-called Prince´s Road in 1911 commemorates his deed.

The period between 1924-26 saw the first essential reconstruction of the chapel. The work was supervised by Rožnov builder Frank Bayer and carried out by carpenters led by foreman Michael Fabian from Zubří. The chapel was mortared and faced with shingle. A small belfry in Greek style was added as well. 
In 2000 the chapel underwent its last reconstruction and the whole belfry was rebuilt. The reconstruction was supervised by the Matice Radhošťská, the association that has taken care of the monument since 1898.