Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Baroque church in Neděliště, Czech Republic.
The Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary is a single-nave Baroque church in Neděliště, standing on the cemetery grounds within a walled enclosure with two gates. Its presbytery was enlarged in 1729, and figurative and heraldic grave slabs from the 17th and 18th centuries are set into its floor. The church crypt served as the family tomb of the estate owners.
The church is first documented in 1124 (or 1142) and served as a parish church in the 14th century. In 1555 the Pardubice builder Václav Všetečka carried out a Renaissance reconstruction, recorded in a wall inscription naming Hamza Bořek of Zabědovice and his wife Eliška of Chlum. In 1701 it was rebuilt and enlarged in Baroque style, and in 1729 Karel Dobřenský of Dobřenice added a new bell tower and extended the presbytery.
The church is named for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and its crypt served as the family tomb of the estate owners, including Karel Dobřenský z Dobřenic, who had the new bell tower built in 1729. In the presbytery floor are set figurative and heraldic tomb slabs from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The church stands on the cemetery plot enclosed by a wall with two gates, so access is through these gates rather than a separate main entrance. The building was fully reconstructed between 2011 and 2014, and burials at the churchyard ceased in 1913, when a new cemetery was established.
Three bells from 1583, 1634 and 1737 were requisitioned in World War I; only the small death bell (umíráček) escaped. After the war the village and a public collection paid for a bell with a relief of St Wenceslas from Jan Bělohoubek's firm in Hradec Králové. The two remaining bells were seized in March 1942.
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