Litomyšl opens Czech chapel built with 3D-printed concrete

In Litomyšl in the Svitavy region, by the Primátorská dam next to the Černá Hora park, the Chapel of St. Josef Kalasanský opened in October 2026 — a structure 3D-printed from concrete to a design by architect Petr Hájek.

The chapel is shaped like a cube with a 3-by-3-metre base and stands nine metres tall. It was assembled from several parts that were printed one after another. At the solstice, sunlight will pass through openings in the walls, and the chapel also uses sound elements. The town allocated one million crowns for the project.

According to the architect, the chapel is a place to give thanks for education's contribution to Litomyšl. Its design encodes principles of geometry, optics and acoustics that heighten the site's spiritual atmosphere, and Hájek chose the dam for the chapel himself. He won the 2024 Czech Architecture Award for designing the concert hall — the so-called “crab” — inside the Imperial Spa building in Karlovy Vary.

The chapel is part of a project of unusual art installations that Litomyšl's town hall has been building since 2023. The first was an unconventional bench called “The Eye Over the Pond” by Hluboký Pond, overlooking the water. In 2024 came a viewing platform made of two connected shipping containers on the road between Litomyšl and the village of Kornice, and since the same year a mirrored installation called “The Door” has stood in Zdeněk Kopal Park.

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Source: kudyznudy.cz