Stará Boleslav: a collegiate chapter? Towards the administrative framework of Christianization in the Czech lands (eleventh–twelfth century)

The article examines the ecclesiastical institution consecrated at Stará Boleslav by Břetislav I in 1046 – specifically whether it was established from the outset as a collegiate chapter, or whether it evolved into one only gradually. Combining archaeological evidence with a critical reading of Cosmas of Prague’s Chronica Boemorum , canon law scholarship, and comparative material from Bohemia and wider Europe, the paper argues that the institution founded in 1046 was most probably not a collegiate chapter in any formal sense, but rather a large minster‐type church served by a group of priests whose primary function was pastoral care and the administration of a broader territory. Three distinct phases of development suggest that the collegiate chapter took shape only in the course of the twelfth century. Placed within the broader context of Christianization and pastoral administration in the Přemyslid principality, the case of Stará Boleslav illuminates the flexible, often ambiguous nature of early ecclesiastical institutions in central Europe before the consolidation of parish structures around 1200.