Church of Saint James the Greater, Romanesque church in Tečovice, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint James the Greater stands on a raised plateau at 231 metres in Tečovice, oriented to the east. Its walls of dark opuka rubble are 1.2 metres thick, the nave measures 13 × 8.5 metres with a wooden beamed ceiling, and a Baroque bell turret with an onion dome sits on the shingled saddle roof.
The church dates from around 1260, built as a late Romanesque structure with a nave and 1.2-metre-thick walls of dark opuka stone. A second building phase in the third quarter of the 14th century added the recessed Gothic portal and the vaulted chancel; the church was burned during the Hussite wars and rebuilt in two stages, with the Baroque bell turret added later. Dendrochronology in 2024 dated the roof truss to the first half of the 15th century.
The church is dedicated to Saint James the Greater, whose image hangs on the Baroque main altar from the third quarter of the 17th century. In the nave, fourteen carved scenes of the Stations of the Cross and a Pietà of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary are displayed. A grave of Romanian soldiers who liberated the village on 3 May 1945 lies in the northeast corner of the adjoining cemetery.
The church stands on the northern hill of Tečovice at 231 metres, next to a cemetery enclosed by a stone wall; the grave of Romanian soldiers who liberated the village on 3 May 1945 lies in its north-east corner. The building has no basement and is entered through a four-metre-high Gothic portal.
The massive stone baptismal font in the nave, 83 cm across and cut from light sandstone at the end of the 13th century, is too large for use and has been left standing at the front of the nave. Dendrochronology in 2024 dated the roof truss to the first half of the 15th century, which also helps date the medieval wall paintings.
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