The functionalist church of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren in Louny hides a valuable organ

His designs from 1928 carried the spirit of Kotěr modernism, but the resulting project was already committed to radical functionalism. The foundation stone of the temple was laid on October 18, 1931 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the issuance of the Patent of Tolerance.

The church with the tower was completed first, followed by the parsonage two years later. In 1936, a classroom with a semicircular end followed. The interior of the church has a specific light atmosphere underlined by blue and yellow window glasses.

The nave of the depth layout is illuminated, not dazzled, the rectangular presbytery with the pulpit used to be immersed in darkness, from which only the elevated figure of the preacher, the sacrificial table and the inscription “Christ is our life” emerged. One of the inspirations for the building was the church in Rajamäen, Finland by Erkki Huttunen.

According to the available data, however, the building was not fully realized (e.g. the tower remained empty). The modernist skeletal reinforced concrete structure is a prominent feature of this part of the city and belongs to important sacred monuments.

In the 1950s, a very valuable organ from the disbanded choir of Prokop the Great in Teplice was moved to the church. It was built in 1874 by the Dresden organist Friedrich Nicolaus Jahn. Due to their excessive size, they could not be installed on the choir, so they were unconventionally placed in the presbytery and thus significantly changed the overall character of the liturgical space.

You could read this article in Dům&Zahrada magazine 3/2019. The data was updated before publication on the website.

Source: House&Garden, National Monument Institute