Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Catholic parish church in Police nad Metují, Czech Republic

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is a three-nave basilica with a tall central nave 7 m wide and 30 m long, lower side aisles 5 m wide, and a raised choir 16.7 m long ending in a five-sided apse. Its west front carries a two-storey gable, and the walls stand 80 cm sunk into the ground. The early Gothic west portal of 1294, with four stepped orders and jambs carved with maple and chestnut leaves, is the most valuable surviving Gothic element.

Abbot Martin I of Břevnov had the stone church built from 1253 in place of an earlier wooden chapel; a provostship was established in Police in 1260 under Přemysl Otakar II. After Martin's death in 1278, abbots Kristián and Pavel II Bavor z Nečtin continued the work, completed in 1294. Hussite wars fires in 1421 and 1469 collapsed the main nave vault.

The church is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and its dedication is tied to the Benedictine provostship founded in Police in 1260 under Břevnov Monastery. The interior murals on the triumphal arch, with angels and the Holy Trinity, and the medallions of saints in the presbytery date from the 1894 renovation under Abbot Bruno Čtvrtečka and remain in place.

The church stands at the northwest corner of the former monastery, entered through the west portal of 1294; the south side faces the front monastery courtyard. The whole building is sunk about 80 cm into the ground, so the portal and the three tall Gothic windows of the presbytery sit lower than expected. Look for the single surviving Gothic double window with original tracery in the first bay of the right nave.

The early Gothic west portal from 1294 is the church's most valuable surviving Gothic element. Its four-stepped jambs carry slender colonnettes with ring shafts and varied capitals, and the arches above are carved with maple and chestnut leaves.