Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Zábrdovice

In 1209, on the left bank of the Svitava River, Lev of Klobouky founded a Premonstratensian monastery with a Romanesque church dedicated to St. Cunigunde. The old church was superseded at the end of the 13^th century by a newly-built monastery church – the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. This monastery complex was frequently damaged and looted by hostile forces, and following the invasion by the Swedes, both monastery and church were decimated. In the aftermath, the monastery was gradually restored, and considerable effort went into building a new church in the Baroque style (1661–1669), based on a design of the Viennese architect Giovanni Pietro Tencalla. Participating in decorating the interior were some of the leading artists of the day: painter Franz Anton Maulbertsch (responsible for the painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on the main altar, ca. 1780), painter Josef Winterhalder jr. (creator e.g. of the decorative frescoes on the vault of the presbytery and nave), Martin Jan Schmidt and Jan Jiří Etgens, sculptor Ondřej Schweigl, and others.

The 18^th century represented the monastery’s heyday, its prosperity and success represented e.g. by the addition in 1753–1755 of the side chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Częstochowa. However, under the reforms of Emperor Joseph II, the monastery was dissolved and repurposed as a military hospital – a function it performs to this day. The former monastery church now served the needs of the parish. Today it is one of the most valuable examples of early Baroque sacred architecture in Brno.