Church of Saint Martin, Fortified church in Sedlčany, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Martin is a Roman Catholic parish church built in the early Gothic style, standing on an oval hill that was the former cemetery. Its west front has a square tower with a sgraffito rustication, late Romanesque-Gothic grouped windows and an octagonal spire, while the 14th-century presbytery has three buttresses and a two-storey Gothic sacristy on its north side.
The tower's paired Romanesque-Gothic windows suggest construction around 1270–1280, though Sedlčany's oldest record of 1294 does not mention the church. In 1374 Petr and Jan of Rožmberk added a tall Gothic presbytery with three buttresses, and a two-storey sacristy whose upper room held town and church valuables. Swedish troops under Lennart Torstensson plundered it on 2 March 1645.
The church is the parish church of the Roman Catholic parish of Sedlčany, in the Příbram vicariate, and formerly served as the dean's church of the Sedlčany deanery. Its tower holds a Renaissance sgraffito, and the tin baptismal font dates from the Renaissance era under Jakub Krčín of Jelčany.
The building can be entered through the main doorway on its western side, though access is limited and requires advance arrangement. Visitors should contact the local parish office beforehand to confirm opening times and visit details.
The north wall of the presbytery, left unbroken in the Gothic period, was chosen for monumental painting; in 2014 restorers uncovered a large Gothic fresco of the Procession of the Three Kings and a fragment of the Baptism of the Lord. Two window openings cut in 1817 for an oratory above the sacristy had damaged the painting before being walled up.
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