Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Gothic church in Most, Czech Republic
The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is a late Gothic church building in Starý Most, a district of Most in the Czech Republic. The three-nave hall features internal buttresses and tall wall surfaces with slender windows that provide even lighting throughout the interior.
The building work started in 1517 under architect Jakob Heilmann after a fire destroyed the earlier basilica on the site. Construction continued over several decades into the early 17th century and shaped the final form of the church.
The building follows the so-called Saxon style of late Gothic design, where buttresses were placed inside rather than outside to create a unified hall space. The tall windows with colored glass let in plenty of light and create a quiet, solemn mood for visitors walking through.
The church is open to visitors from Wednesday through Sunday between April and October, and from Tuesday through Sunday between May and September. You can reach it on foot at its current location in the Starý Most district, where it stands after being relocated.
In 1975 the entire building, weighing 12,000 tons (10,900 metric tons), was moved 841 meters (about half a mile) on rails to save it from demolition for coal mining. This engineering feat ranks among the largest building relocations ever carried out and took several weeks to complete.
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