Rotunda of Saint Catherine in Česká Třebová, Romanesque rotunda in Česká Třebová, Czech Republic.
The Rotunda of Saint Catherine is a late Romanesque chapel from the first half of the 13th century, the only surviving Romanesque rotunda in eastern Bohemia. Its circular nave is enclosed by a stone wall, and a 16th-century bell tower serves as the gate to the former cemetery around it.
Built in the first half of the 13th century, the rotunda stood at the centre of a settlement founded after 1200 above the right bank of the Třebovka by the Premonstratensian monastery of Litomyšl. The town of Česká Třebová itself was founded later, in the second half of the 13th century, under Přemysl Otakar II. A bell tower was added in the 16th century.
Locals call the rotunda simply "Kostelíček" (Little Church). Each November, on the feast of Saint Catherine, the street U kostelíčka below it hosts the Jabkancová pouť fair, where vendors bake jabkance, sweet potato pancakes filled with curd cheese, instead of the usual koláče.
The rotunda stands on a hill above the right bank of the Třebovka, reached by the winding street U kostelíčka between the houses below it. A stone wall surrounds the former cemetery grounds, and the 16th-century bell tower serves as the gate into that enclosure.
Locals call the rotunda simply "Kostelíček" (Little Church), and the lane winding between the houses below it, U kostelíčka, hosts the Jabkancová pouť fair each November on St. Catherine's feast day. Instead of usual cakes, sweet potato pancakes filled with curd cheese, called jabkance, are baked and sold.
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