In the heart of Sazovice in the Czech Republic, the Church of St. Wenceslas rotunda was designed by Moravian architectural practice Atelier Štěpán. Completed this year, the new church's circular form is based on the rotundas built during St. Wenceslas' time in the 10th century.
Atelier Štěpán redesigned the old rotunda into a new gothic square-shaped chapel within the Prague cathedral. “We circumscribed a circle around the square and continued to design with the same proportions and positioning of altar, entrance and stairs,” Atelier Štěpán says.
The church's interior is pared down with modest decoration and soft lighting in order to create an inviting, peaceful space for meditation. It also houses relics of its patron saint. Curved pews surround an organically shaped, bronze-shell altar.
“My aim was to dematerialize the building,” architect Marek Jan Štěpán said. “It’s like cutting a paper cylinder and exploring its possibilities. I created the windows by pushing and pulling the cuts and letting the light glide softly on the walls. [...] The church should influence people’s minds, whether they understand it consciously or subconsciously. This is the reflection of something divine in the volume.”
Project details:
Name: Church of St. Wenceslas
Location: Sazovice
Author: Marek Jan Štěpán / Atelier Štěpán
Cooperation: František Brychta, Jan Martínek, Tomáš Jurák, Jan Vodička, Hana Kristková Interior wall decoration: Vladimír Kokolia
Client: The Association of Church Building in Sazovice
Contractor: Stavad s.r.o.
Project: 2012–2015
Realization: 2015–2017
Photography: Jakub Skokan and Martin Tůma/BoysPlayNice.
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