Legend · České Budějovice
The bakery at the Capuchins
The Capuchin monastery on Kněžská street in České Budějovice needed the neighbouring yard, and the baker would not sell. Only when after his death his widow was dying did a priest come from next door to hear her last will. According to the legend he then put his hand under her pillow.
According to an old Budějovice legend the Capuchin monastery neighboured the house of a certain baker. Behind his house stretched a large yard, while the monastery courtyard was small. The friars therefore asked the baker to cede them part of his yard.
In vain; the baker would not yield. Even after his death they could not move his widow to fulfil their wish.
Years passed and the baker’s widow grew old. She lived alone, for she and her husband had no children. When her death drew near she wished for a priest so that she might confess and prepare to leave this world.
From the neighbouring monastery, according to the legend, one of the Capuchins came. He brought the talk round to a last will, and in a voice already almost inaudible the woman consented that one be drawn up.
The Capuchin put his hand under her pillow. After each question he then moved the woman’s head so that she seemed to nod in assent. When they were almost at the end of the will, he asked:
“Do you wish to leave the yard of your house to the Capuchin monastery?”
The head on the pillow nodded.
According to the legend the yard thus fell to the monastery, and from that time the baker’s house came to be called the Bakery at the Capuchins.
How it really was
The Capuchins were brought to České Budějovice in 1614 and their convent with the church of St Anne arose on Kněžská street in 1615–1620; the story of the baker’s widow’s will is legend and is not attested.
The Capuchins were brought to České Budějovice in 1614 and their convent with the church of St Anne arose on Kněžská street in 1615–1620.
The story itself of the baker, his widow, the last will, the hand under the pillow and the acquisition of the neighbouring yard belongs to Budějovice legendary tradition. It is not attested that the event really happened as the legend tells it.
For the convent’s building the Capuchins in 1614 bought the ruins of nine burgher houses after an earlier fire. The precinct ran from Kněžská to Kanovnická street and included a large garden. The monastery thus really arose in the middle of burgher building and really bordered other people’s yards. After the monastery part of Kněžská street also came to be called Kapuzinergasse, in Czech Kapucínská.
A concrete baker’s house, or that “At the Capuchins” was an attested historical house name, could not be verified. It is the name of the legend.
Where to follow the legend
Church of St Anne and former Capuchin convent, Kněžská street, České Budějovice. Today the church is a concert hall.
Where we know it from
- Encyklopedie Českých Budějovic, hesla kapucíni, kapucínský konvent u kostela svaté Anny, Kněžská ulice
- VLČEK, Pavel; SOMMER, Petr; FOLTÝN, Dušan. Encyklopedie českých klášterů. Praha: Libri, 1997