Church of Saint Nicholas in Svatý Mikuláš, Baroque church in Svatý Mikuláš, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Nicholas is a single-nave Baroque building with rounded corners, a square presbytery and an entrance hall with a choir gallery. Its facade ends in a gable between two low towers, and it stands on a terrace with a two-armed staircase. The Italian architect Carlo Antonio Canevalle designed it, and a barrel-vaulted chapel with a spring lies beneath the terrace.
A chapel stood on the site from the early 17th century, with a hermitage beside it. The healing spring below led to baths with bathing rooms being built in 1711–1719. In 1724–1730 the chapel was replaced by the Baroque church designed by Italian architect Carlo Antonio Canevalle. Deconsecrated in the second half of the 20th century, it was restored in 1976–1986.
The church is deconsecrated and serves as an exhibition hall of the Regional Museum in Vysoké Mýto, which has run the site since a reconstruction in 1976–1986. It displays statues from the Stations of the Cross that once led to the Hora Matky Boží monastery near Králíky, made by a pupil of Matyáš Bernard Braun. Vandals damaged the statues, which were removed from their original site around the mid-20th century and later restored.
The church stands on a hillside terrace reached by a two-arm staircase, with the spring chapel set in the terrace below. The building now serves the Regional Museum in Vysoké Mýto as an exhibition hall, so access follows the museum's opening arrangements rather than parish use.
The statues of the Stations of the Cross now displayed inside were made by a pupil of Matyáš Bernard Braun for the Calvary path to the monastery at Hora Matky Boží near Králíky. Vandals damaged them, they were removed from their original site around the middle of the 20th century and later restored.
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