Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Neo-Gothic church in Stará Ves, Czech Republic
The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is a single-nave Gothic Revival building with a rectangular transept and a 60-metre-high square tower on its south side. The tower becomes octagonal at the top, has clock faces on three sides and ends in an eight-sided pyramidal roof. A five-sided presbytery closes the north end, flanked by a side chapel and sacristy. Stepped buttresses support the outer walls, and the windows hold ornamental stained glass, including a Virgin Mary in a mandorla in the presbytery.
A church in Stará Ves is documented from 1625, when a general visitation recorded it. That building held at most 200 people and served about 1,300 parishioners from Stará Ves and Přestavlky; its cracked 1768 sacristy vault prompted a commission after the 1872 visitation. Architect Gustav Meretta's plans led to demolition on 19 May 1880 and construction by builder Vilém Žák of Přerov, completed in 1881. Archbishop Bedřich of Fürstenberk consecrated the new church on 15 October 1882; the cost reached 46,105 gulden and 34 kreuzer.
The church is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, whose image in a mandorla appears in the stained glass of the central presbytery window. The interior decoration includes plant ornament painting by Ruda Kubíček of Uherské Hradiště from 1908, and the altarpiece paintings were made by Vienna painter Johannes Gärtner. Metalwork was executed by Johann Lefenda of Olomouc.
The church stands in the centre of Stará Ves, its 60-metre tower with clock faces visible from afar as a landmark for orientation. The interior can be visited during services and on parish occasions; the parish of Stará Ves publishes current information. Visitors enter the nave under the star vault at the crossing, with the five-sided presbytery behind the pointed triumphal arch.
Local tradition holds that architect Gustav Meretta used the tower of this church to test building methods he later applied in the Gothic Revival rebuilding of Olomouc Cathedral. The tower rises 60 metres, has an octagonal upper section, clock faces on three sides and an eight-sided pyramidal roof.
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