Church of Saint Andrew, Gothic church in the spa district of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Andrew is a single-nave building on an irregular trapezoidal plan with a three-sided presbytery, standing on a steep slope above the right bank of the Teplá. It retains much of its Gothic masonry from around 1500, but its present form is Classicist, with a hipped tile roof and a Baroque lantern turret topped by a double cross. Inside, a five-tier wooden iconostasis fills the space.
The church was founded around 1500 by Štěpán of Branden, chamberlain of Loket and provincial judge, and parts of its Gothic masonry survive. In the 1840s a radical rebuild by the builder Morawetz gave it its Neoclassical form and added a two-storey sacristy with a mortuary. The cemetery behind it, used from the late Middle Ages until 1864, was abolished in 1911 and replaced by Mozart Park; the church and park have been a protected monument since 1964.
The church is used by the Greek Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches for Saturday, Sunday and feast-day services and other rites. Its five-tier wooden iconostasis has a lower row with icons of Saint Nicholas, the Archangel Gabriel, the Mother of God with the Child, Christ Pantocrator, the Archangel Michael and Saint Andrew with a cross; above are scenes from the lives of Mary and Christ with the Last Supper in the middle, and the twelve apostles around the Crucifixion.
The church stands on a steep slope above the right bank of the Teplá, at a spot once called Am Felsen, with the entrance facing southeast. It is reached on foot via the paths of Mozartovy sady, the park laid out on the former cemetery behind it. The interior is used by the Greek Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches for services on Saturdays, Sundays and feast days.
The cemetery behind the church closed in 1911 and became Mozart's Park; 18th- and 19th-century gravestones were returned there in 1995, and during the 2005–2009 landscaping some still-buried stones were lifted and the park opened to the public.
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