Hall of Mars - St. Pauline and St. Barbara

These two wooden Baroque statues of St. Pauline and St. Barbara probably date from the period after the last large plague epidemic that affected both Moravia and Olomouc in 1714-1715. Originally, they were part of the altar of one of the Olomouc churches abolished at the time of the Josephine reforms at the end of the 18th century.

St. Pauline has been venerated as the patron saint of Olomouc since 1623, when the local Jesuits aquired her remains and attributed them to warding off the plague epidemic in the city. Together with St. Barbara she was called upon by believers at the time of plague epidemics and other disasters.

The two saints, together with the statue of the Crucified Christ, were placed on the facade of the former forge in the district of Řepčín in Olomouc for more than half a century. According to documents found in the mid-1980s behind the statue of Christ, the blacksmith Valentin Vrana hung it here in 1849. Since 2017, the sculptures have been part of the permanent exhibition of the Archdiocesan Museum.