IX. Station on the Way of the Cross Above the City of Židlochovice by Atelier Štěpán s.r.o.

On Sunday 13 October 2024, the IX. station on the way of the cross in the countryside at „Výhon nad Židlochovicemi“ was solemnly presented and blessed. The Way of the Cross arises from the activity of the city and the parish. It is designed for the local landscape and its topography, it is a landart in the scale of the landscape, just as the Stations of the Cross were in the Baroque. Its stations are designed from the square around the rectory, through the forest to the horizon and beyond. The Way of the Cross is the work of the architect and sculptor Marek Jan Štěpán. The inspiration comes from one of his dreams from the period of the covid pandemic. He processed the captured dreams, ideas and feelings in a similar way as the surrealists and translated them into matter.

IX. station – Jesus falls under the cross – is, like the others, in an abstracting version that speaks in contemporary language. Jesus is stylized here in the most perfect shape of a sphere. The circle has always been a symbol of divine things, and the sphere is its spatial transcription.

IX. station is installed on the horizon of the landscape, so it can be seen even from distant views. The composition of the cross and the ball are in a very unstable relative position due to the theme of the fall. The polished concrete ball has a diameter of 2.6 m and is easily “placed” on the grass, the cross is made of HEB steel traverse and is 7 m long. The construction was carried out by Břetislav Eichler’s company. The next stop will now be a fundraiser.

Marek Jan Štěpán: “The Way of the Cross has a connection with the main altar of the Hildebrandt’s parish church of the Exaltation of St. Crosses in Židlochovice. The exceptionally shaped processing of the tabernacle altar works compositionally with the motif of a golden cross and white clouds. So it deals with the theme of a metallic golden cross and a white abstracted sky. This is a very similar topic to what I am dealing with in this Stations of the Cross. If its author were alive today, we would probably find a common note.”

• Project typology, in your own words:

The Way of the Cross arises from the activity of the city and the parish. It is designed for the local landscape and its topography, it is a landart in the scale of the landscape, just as the Stations of the Cross were in the Baroque.

• All landscape architecture offices involved in the design of landscape:

The construction was carried out by Břetislav Eichler’s company.

• Architecture offices involved in the design:

Atelier Štěpán s.r.o.