12 September 2026
The baroque Ivanite hermitage in Teplice nad Metují is a U-shaped range of buildings closed off by a wall with a garden, made up of the church of Our Lady of Help and the two partly log-built wings of the hermitage itself.
About the hermitage
It is one of the last surviving remnants of the Congregation of St Ivan, founded for hermits in Bohemia in 1732. This unusually large hermitage was built in 1753 by Dr Jan Maxmilián of Peytersberg, a Prague physician and doctor of philosophy who, at the age of about 65, decided to take up the hermit’s life and lived here together with two other hermits. In 1782 Emperor Joseph II abolished the eremitical life, but the pilgrimage church and its hermitage were never closed. There is more in the history section.
The rescue and what we intend
Until recently the hermitage was riddled with dry rot and doomed to collapse. In 2010 the association “Zachraňme teplickou poustevnu” (Let’s Save the Teplice Hermitage) was founded. Its purpose is to rescue the building and repair it sensitively, so that the successive stages of its construction remain visible. The roof structure is being repaired the traditional way, with beams hewn by hand from whole logs.
The hermitage now has a new roof, all three chimneys repaired, the entrance portal roughed out and the log walls restored. The church of Our Lady of Help is in reasonably good condition, with a beautiful ceiling painting on Marian themes. The hermitage and church can be visited — they are open to the public and we run guided tours.
News
20–26 August 2026
A visit from The Friends of Czech Heritage
We are being visited by The Friends of Czech Heritage — a group of English volunteers who help restore historic buildings in the Czech Republic. Two Italian architecture students are coming with them. They will help us repair the internal plaster, block up a doorway and with other work, under the direction of Filip Trunečka.
sobota 15. 8. 2026 v 8:30
Poutní mše je zrušena
Poutní mši v kostele P. Marie Pomocné jsme museli z důvodu nemoci zrušit.
Slavnost Nanebevzetí Panny Marie, poutní mše sv.
Thursday 23 July and 20 August 2026, 7 p.m.
Organ Summer
As every year, Ladislav Šikut is putting on the Varhanní léto (Organ Summer) concert series; two of the concerts take place in our little pilgrimage church.