Church of Saint Nicholas, Renaissance church in Aš, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Nicholas in Aš is a single-nave Roman Catholic church built in 1867–1871 in a pseudo-Renaissance style. It measures 42 m long, 13 m wide and 13.5 m high, with a 48 m tower; the architect was Karel Wiedermann of Františkovy Lázně. It stands on the former castle hill next to the town museum.
A small late-Baroque church dedicated to St. Nicholas was built in 1780 on Niklasberg (now Mikulášský vrch) and demolished in 1867. The present church, designed by the Františkovy Lázně architect Karel Wiedermann, was built from 1867 to 1871 in a Neo-Renaissance style at a cost of 53,675 gulden and consecrated on 24 September 1872 by Prague Archbishop Friedrich Schwarzenberg. Its roof was repaired in 2008–2009.
The clock on the tower was a gift from the Evangelical church community, and a more modern mechanism was installed in 1925. The tower also holds a memorial plaque taken from the 1780 church, and the interior keeps an altar painting of St. Nicholas painted in 1869.
The church stands on the former castle hill right beside the town museum in Aš, so the two can be visited together. The Catholic presbytery is in the building to the left of the entrance. The roof was repaired in two phases in 2008 and 2009.
The clock on the tower came from the Protestant congregation, not the Catholic parish; newer clocks followed in 1925. The original bells were melted down for ammunition in World War I, and replacements cast in České Budějovice arrived in 1922. A memorial plaque from the 1780 church is set into the tower.
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