Church of Saint James the Greater, Baroque church in Ruprechtice, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint James the Greater is a single-nave Baroque church built on an elongated octagonal plan, with a sacristy and a vestibule attached. Above the entrance a hexagonal marble plaque reads "FILIO TONITRUI S. IACOBO MAJORI EXCITAVIT 1721 O.A.B." A two-storey Renaissance bell tower of the second half of the 16th century stands southeast of the church and serves as the cemetery gate.
A wooden parish church on this hill was first mentioned in 1386. Abbot Otmar Daniel Zinke had the present church built from 1720 to a design by Christoph Dientzenhofer; his son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer directed construction, and the church was consecrated in 1723. Its original bells were requisitioned during World War I.
The church is one of six St James churches on the Czech East Bohemian route of the Camino de Santiago, marked in red through the Broumov group. Since 2019 a pilgrim statue of St James stands before the cemetery wall, and a short forest Stations of the Cross, the Stezka Vlasty Hampla with 14 stops, was restored in 2025 between Hynčice and Ruprechtice.
The church stands on a hill in Ruprechtice, with the cemetery entered through the ground floor of the two-storey Renaissance bell tower southeast of the church. Mass is held on the first and fourth Sunday of the month at 4 p.m. A red-marked pilgrimage route of the East Bohemian Way of St. James passes the site.
The building was inscribed as a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic in 2022. This designation honors its historical value and place in the nation's architectural heritage.
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