Toleranzkirche, Protestant church in Vsetín, Czech Republic
The Toleranzkirche in Vsetín is a Protestant church built in 1782 in the round-arch style, with a three-sided gallery and a canopied altar whose retable shows the Last Supper. A tower added in the 1880s–1890s holds three steel bells cast by the Bochumer Verein in 1882.
Built in 1782, the church was one of the first Moravian Protestant churches erected after Emperor Joseph II's Tolerance Patent of 1781. In 1785 the congregation split into Lutheran and Reformed groups. The Lutheran church was rebuilt in the Neo-Romanesque style at the end of the 19th century, gaining a tower with three steel bells cast by the Bochumer Verein in 1882.
The church's name recalls Joseph II's Tolerance Patent of 1781, under which the original prayer house was built the following year. Since 1923 the Lutheran and Reformed congregations have formed one Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren community, which still worships here.
The building stands in the town center at Palackého 153 and is easily reached on foot. Keep in mind that this is an active place of worship, so visitor access may be limited to certain times outside of services.
The first pastor, Jan Hrdlička from Modra, was seen by part of the congregation as too rational and authoritarian, and this resistance drove the 1785 split. The Reformed group stayed as tenants in the original church until its own building was consecrated on 24 May 1827, about 50 metres away.
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