Church of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Romanesque church in Dolní Chabry, Czech Republic
The Church of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist is a Romanesque structure in Dolní Chabry with rounded arches and thick stone walls throughout its exterior and interior. The building follows the typical layout of Romanesque churches with a central nave and sturdy supporting pillars.
Archaeological digs in 1973–1974 found four successive shrines here. The oldest, perhaps a wooden burial chapel with opuka-stone walls, dates to the early 11th century; a longitudinal church with a semicircular apse in opus spicatum followed, then a rotunda 12.60 m across from before the mid-12th century. The present church was built in the third quarter of the 12th century in block masonry. Damaged in the Hussite wars, it was repaired in the late Gothic style and the roof raised; a mason's mark dated A.D. 1439 survives in the attic.
The church is a filial church of the parish of Saint Wenceslas in Prosek, a status it has held since the parish of Dolní Chabry lapsed during the Thirty Years' War. Above the entrance is a Renaissance painting of a basin holding the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, the church's patron. A wooden bell tower stands beside the church, its oldest bell cast by Joseph Schöenfeldt in 1695.
The church stands on a small rise on Bílenecké náměstí in Dolní Chabry, with the main entrance through a small portal on the south side. A wooden bell tower with original bells stands right next to it. The building awaits a demanding restoration, and the excavated foundations of the older churches were reburied in 2014, leaving only a Romanesque column base visible.
Archaeological digs in 1973–1974 found the foundations of three earlier shrines beneath the church, including a rotunda 12.60 m across, the second-largest known Romanesque rotunda in Bohemia after St Vitus' at Prague Castle. Its floor was laid with relief tiles of about 20 types; one shows the prophet Daniel in the lions' den.
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