The Chapel of the Guardian Angels in Starý Bohumín, which was sometimes also referred to as the chapel "under the reservoir", stands in Starý Bohumín in the places where the barns of the townspeople of Bohumín were originally located. It was built and demonstrably maintained until 1950 from the donations of local believers. But its beginnings probably go back to 1831, when the citizens of Old Bohemia, who at that time succumbed to the so-called Asian cholera, were buried en masse in these places. This happened because of the lack of space in the cemetery at the time, located near the Old Bohemian parish church.
Burials took place in these places once more, in 1846, when for the same reason as in 1831, those from Bohumín citizens who died due to a bad harvest because of a great famine and a typhus epidemic found their final resting place here. To this day, this small sacral building has survived only because the plans for the construction of a new neo-Gothic chapel were never fully implemented.
In the history of its existence, this chapel has already been repaired several times. Documented general repairs took place in 1968 (perhaps it was in 1968 that František Ligocký painted a painting of the Virgin Mary for the chapel altar, the oil painting is now housed in the parish museum), 1973, 1980, 1995 and 2004. Since 1967, the chapel has been registered in central list of cultural monuments.
The credit for the fact that the necessary reconstruction of the chapel could take place in 2004 goes mainly to the Maryška civic association, which received the necessary amount of funds from a grant from the VIA Foundation (55,000 crowns) and from the Bohumín Municipal Office (25,000 crowns). Numerous volunteers from the ranks of Old Bohemian citizens and young nature conservationists took part in the repair.
The act of rededication of the newly named Guardian Angels Chapel (originally Our Lady of Sorrows) took place on October 28, 2004 and was witnessed by many locals and guests. At the same time, a cross was re-erected here, which was made by the Prague director Miloš Zabranský as part of the Bohumín woodcarving plein air Summer Circle 2001.
The ravages of time have taken their toll on the wooden cross, so the Maryška association undertook its transformation in 2023 with the financial support of the city of Bohumín. The association had the original cross, including the foundations, removed and commissioned the production of a new one. Carver Petr Ožana took on the difficult task, creating an almost four-meter-high cross from oak wood. Blacksmith Tomáš Swanczara took care of its high-quality anchoring.
Site history in data
• 1831: Construction of the Chapel of the Guardian Angels (previously Our Lady of Sorrows)
• 1831 - 1832: Burial of victims of the cholera epidemic in the place
• 1846 - 1847: Burial of typhus epidemic victims in the place
• 1967: Entry of the chapel into the central list of cultural monuments
• 2004: Reconstruction of the chapel and erection of the original cross
• 2023: Erection of a new four-meter oak cross