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General info

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (in Czech, Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie) is a buiding in Gothic style located in the city of Most, in the Ústí nad Labem region, in the northwest of the Czech Republic.
It is said that it entered the Guinness World Records as the heaviest building (12,700 tons) ever moved on wheels.

The construction of the church began in 1517 and continued for many years. The church was first completed in the early 17th century.
Over the centuries, the structure underwent numerous changes, but only the crypt of the original temple remains today.

The church is 60 meters long and 30 meters wide, has only one tower, and conforms to the German late Gothic style.
The interior forms a large atrium, divided into three naves by seven pairs of octahedral columns. The outer walls feature two rows of windows.

There are 16 chapels, two side vestibules, a sacristy, a double screw staircase on the eastern side and a spiral staircase on the western side.
Each of the chapels has its ribbed vault and is dedicated to the patron saints of its donors: the guilds, the wealthy citizens and one to St. Bartholomew.

Historical context

In the 1970s, the communist regime decided to completely destroy the historic center of Most to make room for the expansion of coal mining, after it was discovered that the city was sitting on 87 million tons of coal.
All the buildings existing in Most at the time were razed to the ground. The only exception was the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

If you wonder why the Communist regime decided to save a church, well, we do not know.
However, there were several studies that proved the historical and artistic value of this church and 11 different proposals were presented to save it.

The description below outlines the project that was finally approved.
It involved displacing the church and bring it to the vicinity of the baroque hospital and its adjacent small Gothic church of the Holy Spirit (which is where it stands today).

The project for the move

A very detailed plan was created for the move. This included changes to the church’s structure to ensure that it would not be damaged during the transportation.
For example, the walls and supporting pillars were strengthened and the right tower was demolished.
The circumference of the church was reinforced with a concrete ring and the whole construction was enclosed by a steel frame.
In addition, all the houses that were on the path that the church would follow during the move were demolished and some open pits and mines had to be covered.

The whole preparation took 7 years.

The mechanical engineer Jiří Souček took care of the design and planning.
He developed and produced some special position sensors, with the help of a computer, and made the first prototype at home in his garage.
To test the mechanism, Souček’s team moved a house close to Prague. A short clip of this is between minutes 1:47 and 3:11 of this video (in Czech).

The overall task was to ensure that the church would stay in an horizontal position during the entire transfer, so that the deviation from the transport level never exceeded one millimeter.

It was not an easy task. It was clear that moving such a heavy building was a big risk and if a mistake were to happen, it would be impossible to fix it.
In addition, the path along which the church was to be moved was not only curved in an arc, but had also a longitudinal slope.

The transfer of the church of the Assumption

The transport base of the church was supported by 53 Škoda trucks, which moved on rails. Each truck had its own sensor.

A computer controlled the movement of the church. Souček and his team developed a complex software to load, move and hold the whole structure.
The software recorded data from the sensors on each truck in cycles of about half a minute.
Based on the collected data, the software was able to determine the exact position of the truck and could performed complex calculations to raise or lower the truck by using hydraulic pistons.
All the above was done to control the displacement and minimize the shocks and possible deformations to the structure.

When the church crossed a certain point, the workers dismantled the tracks behind it and repositioned them in front, because the total length of the specially constructed tracks was only 160m.

Finally, between September 30th and October 27th of 1975 the church completed its journey, with a total of 841.1m and an average speed of 2.16cm per minute, which is half as slow as a snail.

What remained was to rebuild the tower, which was dismantled before the move.
Next, they needed to persuade the religious authority to re-consecrate the church. During the transport, the church turned and the altar no longer faces the east, but the south.

If you are into the technicalities, here is a 20 minutes video showing how the move happened.

The current status of the church of the Assumption

In the new location, a two-storey reinforced concrete foundations were built.
The church reopened on 4th November 1988, but the restoration of the interiors continued during the following years.
Only on June 19th and 20th 1993 the solemn consecration took place, by bishop Josef Koukl.

The Church of the Assumption is the oldest preserved monument in Most.
With its exceptionally well maintained and stylistically clean Gothic features it ranks among the most important monuments of Bohemia.

It is currently used for religious ceremonies and as an exhibition of Gothic and Renaissance art from North West Bohemia.

How to get there

From Prague there are trains to Most every hour.
From the train station you can either walk for about 30 mins until the church or jump on buses n. 16 or 30 that go towards the lake (Jezero Most) and get off at “Děkanský kostel” or “Kostelní hřbitov”.