Church of the virgin Mary of Karmel

The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Kostelní Vydří is a Baroque Marian shrine and former Carmelite monastery set on a low hill above the village of Kostelní Vydří in South Bohemia, close to the town of Dačice. It has long been one of the region's notable pilgrimage sites, built around a venerated image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on its main altar.

How did the shrine at Kostelní Vydří come to be built?

The story begins at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1694, Baron Gerhard Jindřich Rutz of Rolsberg acquired the settlement of Kostelní Vydří, which had already existed since 1305, and in 1709 he ordered a small chapel to be built on a nearby hill. The chapel was consecrated by Father Karel Felix Slavata, who donated the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that was placed on the main altar — it was this image that turned the chapel into a pilgrimage destination.

About twenty years later the chapel was enlarged for the first time, and between 1746 and 1752 a monastery building was added alongside it. In 1754 a wooden nave was attached to the chapel, and the original chapel itself became the presbytery of the new church. That wooden nave was replaced with a brick structure between 1787 and 1789, giving the church the late Baroque form it still has today.

Why did it take two centuries for Carmelite friars to arrive?

Although the monastery building went up in the mid-18th century with the idea of having friars permanently available to serve pilgrims, Enlightenment-era reforms and the religious policies of Emperor Joseph II prevented any order from actually moving in. For more than 150 years the shrine was run by diocesan priests rather than monks.

It was only in 1908 that Baron Bedřich Dalberg of Dačice invited Carmelite friars from Austria to take charge of the church and parish. Between 1908 and 1921 the community was largely German-speaking; from 1921 until the Second World War, one or two Czech Carmelites served the parish instead. After the war, the Communist takeover halted any further expansion of the monastery.

What can visitors see on site today?

The church is a late Baroque building dating to 1787–1789. On its western side it is enclosed by a wall with a covered ambulatory, while the monastery building closes off the complex to the south, together forming a compact pilgrimage precinct. The presbytery still occupies the space of the original early-18th-century Baroque chapel — the same spot where the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been venerated for over three hundred years.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the church in Kostelní Vydří located? The shrine stands on a hill above the village of Kostelní Vydří in the Vysočina region, within the Jindřichův Hradec district, close to the town of Dačice in South Bohemia.

Where does the devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel here come from? It stems from the image donated for the main altar by Father Karel Felix Slavata when the first chapel was consecrated in 1709. That image is what established the site as a Marian pilgrimage shrine.

When did the Carmelite order take over care of the church? In 1908, at the initiative of Baron Bedřich Dalberg of Dačice, who brought Carmelite friars from Austria to Kostelní Vydří — before that, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the church had been served by diocesan priests.

How did the complex grow over the centuries? In stages: the 1709 chapel, its enlargement roughly twenty years later, the monastery building of 1746–1752, a wooden nave added in 1754, and finally the brick, late Baroque nave built between 1787 and 1789, which gave the church its present appearance.