Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Baroque pilgrimage church in Nicov, Plánice, Czech Republic

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is a Baroque pilgrimage church in Nicov, 2 km east of Plánice. Built 1717–1726 to a design by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, it has a Greek-cross plan with a central dome, a choir, and two conches on the cross axis; the facade between the corner towers is concave, the side facade convex. It stands on oak piles because of the marshy ground and is oriented unusually to the south.

Count Adolf Bernard of Martinitz, owner of the Plánice estate, commissioned Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer to build the church, erected between 1717 and 1726 on the site of an earlier chapel near a healing spring. Bishop Johann Joseph Wratislaw of Mitrowitz consecrated it in 1730. A foundation created in 2012 works to restore it.

The village's pilgrimage tradition long predates the church: a spring beside it was said to heal the sick, and a small chapel once held a Madonna and Child statue. That statue, the Panna Marie Nicovská, has been kept in a Vienna Franciscan church since 1622. Since 2012 the Nicov Foundation has held benefit concerts here, with violinists Václav Hudeček and Jaroslav Svěcený among the performers.

The church stands about two kilometres east of Plánice, beside a healing spring, and is oriented unusually to the south. It is a protected cultural monument, so access is arranged locally; the Nicov Foundation, set up in 2012, organises benefit concerts in the building.

The church stands on oak piles driven into marshy ground, which is why it has survived without settling. Its south-facing orientation departs from the usual eastward alignment of churches, and the adjacent cemetery mortuary is also attributed to Dientzenhofer.