Bishop Jindřich Zdík of Olomouc (c. 1083-1150) was one of the greatest Czech scholars of the early medieval period, an outstanding clergyman and diplomat, and a promoter of church reforms. He was instrumental in the completion of St. Wenceslas Cathedral and had the Bishop’s Palace built on Wenceslas Hill, which is today the only surviving Romanesque monument in Olomouc.
Its origin is still speculated. He was probably the son of the chronicler Kosmas and his wife Bozetecha. He was elected bishop of Olomouc in 1126. His Christian zeal led him twice to Palestine, three times on missions to the Baltic, and several times to Rome at the invitation of the Pope. One of his important achievements was bringing to Bohemia a new monastic order of Premonstratensians, which he always preferred to the Benedictines. In 1142-1143, together with Vladislav II, he founded the oldest Premonstratensian settlement in Bohemia – Strahov Monastery.
In Olomouc, he solemnly consecrated the still unfinished St. Wenceslas Church in 1131, where he transferred the bishop’s seat from St. Peter’s Church at Předhradí in 1141. He established a twelve-member chapter at the church. In the vicinity of the church he built his episcopal residence – a representative palace and a chapter house for the canons. It was an important High Romanesque residential building – today called the Premyslid Palace. On his second pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1137, he received the relic of the Holy Cross from the Patriarch for St. Wenceslas Cathedral. In Olomouc, he expanded the bishop’s library and set up the so-called scriptorium, a scribal workshop for copying divine aids and basic theological and legal works that he brought back from his travels. Among the liturgical aids, the so-called Olomouc horologium stands out, which unfortunately did not remain in Olomouc, but ended its journey in the Swedish Royal Library in Stockholm.
