Christ’s journey to Golgotha through the streets of Jerusalem

• EXHIBITION: Christ’s journey to Golgotha through the streets of Jerusalem
• TERM: 10 04. – 06 07 2025
• VERNISAGE: 10 04 2025 v 18:30
• PLACE: Olomouc Archdiocesan museum, Chapel of St. John the Baptist
• CURATOR: Helena Zápalková
• RESTORATION: Veronika Klimszová
• CONSERVATION PREPARATION OF EXHIBITS: Tomáš Guľáš, Gabriela Polívková, Ondřej Žák
• PHOTOS: Markéta Lehečková, Zdeněk Sodoma
• INSTALLATION: Daniel Opletal, Vlastimil Sedláček, Filip Šindelář
• GRAPHIC DESIGN: Martin Cenkl, Petr Šmalec
• TRANSLATION: Zuzana Henešová
• VIDEO: Kamil Zajíček 
• EDUKAČNÍ PROGRAMY / EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES: Hana Lamatová, Marek Šobáň, Denisa Tessenyi

The collection of old prints at the Olomouc Museum of Art has recently been enriched by an exceptional Baroque print by the Augsburg draughtsman, engraver, and publisher Johann Daniel Herz the Elder (1693–1754) – View of Jerusalem with the Passion of Christ from around 1735. Due to its impressive dimensions (print: 820 × 1215 mm; paper: 880 × 1270 mm), it is considered the largest historical print ever created on a single copper plate and printed on a single sheet of handmade paper. The work, which had spent many years completely forgotten in a storage, had to undergo a complex conservation process due to its poor condition. The current exhibition presents it to the public for the very fi rst time.

The print depicts a bird’s eye view of ancient Jerusalem. The panorama of the fortifi ed city, with its fantastical palaces, amphitheatres, temples, and many other buildings, is fi lled with a large number of fi gures among whom one can recognize all the main episodes of Christ’s Passion story, unfolding in a single moment. The graphic print can be seen not only as a unique work of art that captivates us with the exceptional imagination of the author and its artistic and craftsmanship qualities but also in its original function, tied to devotional practices of virtual pilgrimages or the repeated representation of the Easter events.

For Christians, ancient Palestine, known as the Holy Land (Lat. Terra Sancta), was the land where Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead, where the fi rst Church gathered, where the fi rst martyrs died, and where the spread of the Gospel began. The places of biblical stories became an authentic memorial space, which, soon after Christ’s death, drew the fi rst pilgrims. However, going on a pilgrimage was not easy. The high costs, time demands, and dangers associated with the journey, as Jerusalem had not been successfully kept under Christian control since the 13th century, made the Holy Land a goal that was quite hard to reach for many believers. As a result, in the Middle Ages, special techniques were developed to help construct the image of Jerusalem outside of time and space, in the mind and heart of a pilgrim. For imaginary journeys to sacred places, together with devotional texts, later accompanied by images, the real pilgrimage itineraries, descriptions of holy sites, maps, and works of art were also used. Tangible traces of completed pilgrimages and subsequent tools for their repeated remembrance also became objects brought back by the pilgrims, such as fragments of rocks, pieces of clay, or various souvenirs. Through several exceptional exhibits from public and church collections, this exhibition aims to remind the public of the nowforgotten practice of these former imaginary pilgrimages. Although modern technology enables previously unimaginable ways of transmitting images and information, the human desire to transcend the boundaries of the known world has, through various forms of perception and motivation, essentially remained unchanged.