Armorial Hall

The biggest hall of the former residence of the Olomouc chapter dean is a ceremonial hall designed for chapter meetings, now called the Armorial Hall. It was created during the rebuilding in the middle of the 18th century, when it was also decorated with paintings on the walls and rich, polychrome stucco ceiling decoration. While the decoration of the ceiling can be admired today, the original paintings on the walls disappeared in the last third of the 19th century under the wooden panelling of walls with painted coats of arms that give the hall its present name.

A total of 261 coats of Olomouc canons from the 17th to the 19th century can be counted in the 15m long and 8m wide room. This is due to the fact that the Olomouc chapter is one of the oldest in Moravia, and its rules required the candidates to have not only a doctorate from a prestigious university, but also a noble family tree. It was precisely this that should adequately be demonstrated by the adaptation of the Armorial Hall.

The Armorial Hall and the next three rooms are united by the ceiling decoration – in each of them is represented an allegory of one of the four elements, Earth, Fire, Air and Water. In the Armorial Hall, we can see the element of Earth, which is represented by the four seasons and the celebration of earthly life.

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You can see a unique collection of ivory carvings in the armorial hall.