Crystal pride of North Bohemian Kunratice

The village is located in the beautiful landscape of Novoborsko, not far from Cvikovo. The first written mention of the village dates back to 1296. For the last ten years it has been a strong magnet for sightseeing or adventure tourism. This is mainly thanks to the popular glassmaking area of the family company of the world-famous glassmaker and designer Jiří Pačink, who is one of the most important Czech creators of art glass made using traditional handmade techniques.

The family-owned company Pačinek has been operating on the international glass scene as an independent brand since 2007. This year it celebrates ten years of operation in its own smelter, which was established in Kunratice by reconstructing the former machine station. Not only glass artists, artists, filmmakers, architects and designers from all over the world, but also the general public open their doors here. The glassworks is open for tourist excursions all year round. Master Pačinek himself will also be happy to show his magic with a glass whistle at the mouth of visitors to the manufactory, who can be watched by tourists working on his demanding original projects. These include, for example, large sculptures of horses, birds and plants, and other works inspired by nature, which give rise to amazing and unique garden projects for even the most demanding customers, as guests will see when they walk through the amazing, unrivalled Glass Garden in the valley just below the glassworks, where tourist cottages with accommodation are also available for those interested.

Birthday cake Pachinko GLASS

In May, the village of Kunratice u Cvikova celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Pačinka Glassworks, which has since become not only a local pride but also a cultural centre with a reach far beyond the borders of the region. The May festivities, crowned with gatherings of citizens, exhibitions and concerts, were, as the deputy mayor of the village Martina Černá told us, marked by joy, memories and admiration for the beauty of glassmaking art.
The celebrations were all the more significant because this year also marked the five-year anniversary of the opening of the Crystal Temple - the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which was the work of a collective of enthusiasts led by Jiří Pačink and David Sobotka, the artistic manager of Pačinek Glass. As Vice-Mayor Černá points out, the Crystal Temple soon became not only a spiritual place of meeting, peace, inspiration and beauty, but also a place where the spiritual dimension is combined with the unique art of the glass masters. It is no wonder that over the past five years the temple has been visited by many prominent personalities and thousands of visitors from all over the country and abroad. They are drawn here by the connection between spirituality and a unique artistic experience. In fact, more than 300 works of art by Jiří Pačink, inspired by nature itself, are installed in the church. Some of the works have sacred motifs, such as crosses or angels. The entire space of the church is complemented by large sculptures and the windows of the church are decorated with artistic vases and cups in various colours, including a unique nativity scene.

Welcome to the Crystal Temple

David Sobotka, the artistic manager of the PačinekGlass glassworks, initiated the idea of establishing the Crystal Temple in 2020, where he now serves as master of ceremonies and administrator. Together with Pater Rudolf Repka, they founded the Crystal Temple, a project for the care and restoration of the 200-year-old Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Kunratice near Cvikov. The third of the visionaries was Jiří Pačinek and the Crystal Temple gradually became a glassmaking, cultural and social phenomenon. As a result of an agreement between the Roman Catholic parish in Kunratice and the municipalities of Kunratice and Pačinek Glass, the cultural monument took on different dimensions than it had before. In the words of David Sobotka, Pačinek, who created a number of glass objects for the church, brought a fresh breath of new artistic energy and function as a Temple of Spirit and Art to the old, abandoned and locked church. It is therefore today a living and widely visited extraordinary gallery of handmade glass, housed in a national monument.
Not only that, Sobotka, Pačink and Pater Rudolf Repka together created a unique glass gift for Pope Francis in 2021. The crystal monstrance and the reliquary of St. Zdislava were then handed over personally during an audience at the Vatican on 10 November 2021.

Exhibitions and concerts

From 2020, the Crystal Temple will host, as we have already said, an extensive exhibition of modern glass by Jiří Pačink. The rich cultural programme included, for example, a presentation of works by the painter Hunčovský in April. Karel Hunčovský comes from northern Bohemia, where he also lives and has been painting in oil, watercolour and dry pastel for more than twenty years. His great passion - travelling - has led him to the Pačink glassworks, where he was inspired not only by what is created on the glass pipes, but above all by those who are behind the birth of this fragile beauty. Thus, a series of paintings was created in which, alongside the face and figure of Jiří Pačinek, portraits of blowers, cutters and other members of Pačinek Glass are depicted in their working situations. The exhibition, entitled CONNECTIONS, attracted a great deal of visitor interest.
The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, for example, was just as crowded, resounding with music, poetry and a warm atmosphere during the recent national event Night of Churches. The cultural evening was prepared by the municipality of Kunratice and the Krisštálový temple association. The program was opened by the promising singer Anna Horáková, who with her pure and emotional interpretation drew the audience into a strong spiritual depth. The church continued to ring with the masterful playing of Slovak artist Alžběta Chomisteková, who demonstrated how powerful and majestic the tone of the organ can be in a space full of light and glass. This was followed by a captivating performance by the German brass choir. However, the aforementioned Night of the Churches in the Crystal Temple was not only about music. Guests of the evening included well-known actors Ilona Svobodová and Jan Št'astný. Their recitation of William Shakespeare's sonnets, verses about love, transience and beauty moved most of the audience, enthralled by the organ accompaniment of Petr Čech, a leading organist from the Church of Our Lady before Týn, whose playing confirmed the depth of the words recited. The end of a great cultural evening belonged to the band Malukoš, which demonstrated that even traditional folk music can be grasped with insight and originality.

Rainbow Bridge

As part of the celebration of the five years of the Crystal Temple's existence, artistic manager David Sobotka organized and also presented a concert on July 12th by the Liberec choir AURE ROSA, a mixed choir at the U3V TUL. The fully occupied church pews were cheered by the performance, which was staged and directed by Jana Konvalinková. The soprano Adele Vele - Singrová excelled in her solos, the piano accompaniment was successfully performed by David Němec and Bohuslav Ledl.
"Why the Rainbow Bridge?" smiles manager Sobotka at our question. "It's symbolic, because the Rainbow Bridge at the end of the concert connected the temple premises with the interior near the Glass Garden, which is not only a local tourist magnet, but for example impressed visitors to the winter Prague Botanical Garden last year. Over 75,000 people saw the large-scale glass flowers in Prague in two months! Due to its extraordinary success, the exhibition will be repeated at the end of this year."
It remains to add that the celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Crystal Temple in Kunratice will also mark the 30th anniversary of the canonization of St. Zdislava and the 30th anniversary of the famous Czechoslovak film In the Crest of the Lioness, in which St. Zdislava of Lemberk was portrayed by the actress Milena Steinmasslová, who will honour the Jiří Pačink Glassworks and the Crystal Temple with a visit and talk about St. Zdislava on 20 September. But that will be the subject of another article.

Ivan Cerny