Saving the Wall Paintings

The cloisters are a covered arcaded walkway surrounding the courtyard with the Svatá Hora basilica on all four sides. They were built between 1659 and 1670 to a design by the architect Carlo Lurago and form a rectangle of roughly 80 × 72 metres. Four octagonal chapels stand at the corners — the Pražská, Plzeňská, Mníšecká and Březnická. The cloisters are decorated with wall paintings and are freely accessible every day at no charge.

A lunette is a semicircular field on a wall, created where a vault meets the wall. In historic buildings lunettes were commonly filled with paintings — they form a natural picture frame above eye level. There is a whole series of such painted lunettes in the Svatá Hora cloisters.

There are two different cycles of paintings in the Svatá Hora cloisters. The vaults depict one hundred specific miracles and graces attributed to Our Lady of Svatá Hora; each bears a year and a number referring to an entry in the Svatá Hora books of miracles. The lunettes on the walls carry scenes recounting the origins and character of the pilgrimage site, accompanied by inscriptions in three languages — Czech, Latin and German.

Because Svatá Hora was a pilgrimage site for the inhabitants of both the Czech and the German lands, and Latin was the language of the Church. The inscriptions beside the paintings are therefore written in Czech, German and Latin, so that every pilgrim could understand them, no matter where they had come from.

The most common cause is moisture — water rising through the masonry or leaking in from outside brings salts into the plaster, and as they crystallise they break the bond between the plaster, the paint layer and the wall. Temperature swings, dust, earlier unsuitable repairs with impermeable materials and, in open spaces such as the cloisters, exposure to the outdoor environment all add to this. The paint layer gradually separates from its base and falls off.

No. Only what has survived can be restored — a paint layer that has fallen off the wall is irretrievably lost. Missing areas can be retouched or repainted from documentation, but that is no longer the original work. That is why it is decisive to intervene at the moment when the layer is only beginning to come loose, and not after it has fallen away.

The price depends on the area, the state of preservation and the demands of the intervention; for one damaged lunette in the Svatá Hora cloisters it comes to CZK 136,500. The sum covers the restoration survey, consolidation of the loosened paint layer, cleaning, plaster repairs, retouching, final conservation, scaffolding and the mandatory restoration documentation. The work may be carried out only by a restorer licensed by the Ministry of Culture and is approved by the National Heritage Institute.

A lunette in the cloisters depicting a concert of angels above the original little Svatá Hora chapel — angels with violins, violas and a lute, above them Our Lady of Svatá Hora with the Infant Jesus, and below them four children in white shirts. An inscription in three languages runs around the edge; in Czech it reads: “According to tradition, God often showed by supernatural signs that this hill was dear to him.” Of all the lunettes in the cloisters this one is in the worst condition, which is why we are starting with it.

It captures Svatá Hora in its very first form — as a small chapel with a turret, of the kind that stood on the hill long before the basilica, the cloisters and the stairway came into being. There are few such images. And there is a second thing: it is a painting about music, and today the colour is disappearing from it most of all in the places where the musicians are painted.

Because it is the most badly damaged of them all, and with wall paintings the order matters. Where the paint layer is already separating from its base, every further year means an irreversible loss. The other lunettes are in better condition and can wait — this one cannot.

There will be more. There are more lunettes in the cloisters that need care, and we regard this collection as the first instalment. We are not promising to save them all at once — we proceed one by one, starting with the most damaged. We will always let donors know when the next one opens.

Yes. Both individuals and companies may deduct the value of their gifts from their tax base, up to 30% of that base; for individuals the increased limit applies to tax periods up to and including 2026. We issue the donation confirmation automatically.