International Colloquium on the Emmaus Cycle Preservation

An international project for detailed research of the wall paintings of the so-called Emmaus cycle in Prague was presented at an international colloquium. 

On 22 and 23 May 2025, an international colloquium was held at Emmaus Abbey to summarize the findings of the restoration and natural history research carried out on the wall paintings located in the monastery's ambulatory. The research was carried out using the latest methods in the field, some of which have not been used in the Czech Republic to this quality before. In addition to the results of the research, the possibilities of further preservation and presentation of the Emaus paintings were also discussed. Renowned experts in the field of restoration and conservation, both from the Czech Republic and abroad, spoke at the colloquium. In addition to the members of the project, among them were PhDr. Kateřina Kubínová, Ph.D. from the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Mgr. et Mgr. Jan Dienstbier, Ph.D. et Ph.D. from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, doc. MgA. Adam Pokorný, Ph.D. from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, German conservationist Dr. phil. Dörthe Jakobs from Leitung Fachgebiet Restaurierung (a.D.), Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg, or Italian restorer Alberto Felici from Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Firenze e le province di Pistoia e Prato.

The colloquium was attended by nearly a hundred participants from ten countries, both students and professionals, employees of a number of institutions in the field of restoration, conservation and related disciplines.

Two German universities, namely the Technische Hochschule Köln and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, together with the Czech Faculty of Restoration at the University of Pardubice, are participating in the project. The project is entitled “Concept of preventive conservation, securing and preservation of the cycle of wall paintings in the cloister of the Emmaus Monastery in Prague”, which indicates its direction. 
The project is funded by the German State Foundation Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Foundation for the Environment). Although the foundation is primarily dedicated to funding scientific projects in the field of the environment, it also funds research with this focus in the field of cultural heritage. 
The mural paintings under study are located in Prague, in the ambyte of the Na Slovanech Monastery, and date from the reign of Emperor Charles IV, from the 1460s to the 1470s. The paintings are unique in that they are a very large cycle of 26 paintings, but originally 33. There is a minimum of similar realisations in Central Europe today. Moreover, the paintings are of high artistic quality, which is related to the fact that at the time of their creation Prague was the cultural centre of the Holy Roman Empire.

Among the most significant factors of damage to the paintings are the bombing in 1945 and the resulting fall of some of the paintings as well as leakage into the building. Subsequent restoration, carried out from the 1950s onwards, saved the paintings on the one hand, but on the other hand brought about a number of irreversible interventions and material inputs that seem inappropriate from today's perspective. It is these that the future restoration will have to deal with.