Church of Saint Catherine, Renaissance wooden church in Hrabová, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint Catherine is a single-nave wooden church built in log construction, with a square-plan nave, a narrower three-sided presbytery, and a west tower with an overhanging chamber. The nave and presbytery share a shingled gable roof, and the tower is topped by a shingled helm. The main altar, designed by René Vlasák, echoes medieval triptychs.
Dendrochronology dates the fir timber to trees felled after 1522, placing construction in the second quarter of the 16th century. The first written record is the 1564 death notice of Jira Cholewa, carved beside the main portal. A fire on 2 April 2002 destroyed the church; it was rebuilt as a period copy and consecrated on 27 November 2004.
The church is dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and a local legend claims it was moved here from Metylovice, a tale no source supports. Since 1890 Hrabová has been an independent parish, and the building is listed as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic under number 32601/8-232.
The church stands in Hrabová, a district in the south of Ostrava, and is entered through a main door and a side door in the south wall of the nave. The interior is reached past a choir loft carried on two wooden posts, and the floor keeps fragments of the original stone paving. The building is a cultural monument, listed since 3 May 1958 under number 32601/8-232.
The church was listed as a cultural monument on 3 May 1958 under number 32601/8-232. After the 2002 fire, fragments of the original stone floor and several original beams were kept and built secondarily into the sacristy walls.
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