Teplice

Teplice

Teplice is the oldest spa in Bohemia; hot mineral springs have been known perhaps as early as in the period of Celtic settlement. Teplice lies 228 metres above sea level in a valley between the Bohemian Central Highlands and the massif of the Ore Mountains and has around 52,000 inhabitants. The biggest development of spa occured in the 16th century. Even an Elector of Saxony liked to visit this spa. The original Renaissance palace dates back to this period, later the palace was rebuilt in a Baroque and Empire style. The major monuments include also the Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross from the year 1700.

In 1793 the bigger part of the spa burned down; in the following years there has been an extensive reconstruction of the town in the Classicist and Empire style, with beautiful parks and fountains. In the 19th century Teplice becomes “salon of Europe“. Among prominent guests there were for example J. W. Goethe, L. van Beethoven, František Palacký and Jan Neruda. Teplice’s reputation is being carried forward until the 20th century. Then there however came a period of Munich and World War II, and as elsewhere in the border area the German residents left Teplice after the war. And together with them the members of the German Evangelical Church also left.

In the 60s of the last century Teplice was almost at the verge of ecological disaster. Intensive mining activities of the North Bohemian Coal Mines reached to the very town. Unfavourable dispersion conditions threatened the inhabitants of the world-famous town with increasing frequency. The first student demonstrations against the air and land pollution in autumn 1989 broke out here in Teplice. After the Velvet Revolution Teplice could finally breathe freely again.

But let us return for a moment back into the past. What was the religious life of the Czech Protestants in this spa town?

The difficult task to build individual preaching stations in the North Bohemia fell to the congregation in Krabčice. Thanks to the tireless work of the local preachers, in 1899 the Czech Reformed preaching station was established in the suburbs of Teplice (today it is its town part Trnovany). After World War I many new members came and in the year 1926 a congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) was established in Teplice-Trnovany. Its first minister was Eugen Zelený. The congregation seat was transferred to Teplice in 1934. A plot next to the congregation building was bought and in 1938 a church in the functionalist style designed by architect Miloslav Tejc started to grow here.

Before it could be finished, the Second World War started. The German Evangelical Church had its congregation in Trnovany and during the war the Czech Protestants were also allowed to meet in their Art-Nouveau church from the year 1905. When the war finished, the members of Teplice congregation could use this church; they however preferred to finish the building of “their own” church. It was officially opened on 1st January 1948. (The German church in Trnovany had a sad fate: it became a warehouse, then it burned and in 1974 it was demolished).

Teplice congregation of the ECCB has been using its church for more than 60 years and remembers with a gratitude all who contributed to its construction in the hard recent years and enjoys a rich congregation life, as it is enabled by the congregation facilities with a nice garden.