Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Roman Catholic church in Chvalšiny, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene is a single-nave late Gothic church with a polygonal presbytery, a massive square tower with a pyramidal roof on its south side, and the circular Rosary Chapel of the Virgin Mary added on the north side in 1760. The nave, 20 by 11.5 m, has a net vault by Hans Getzinger, and the presbytery a star vault.
A Romanesque church stood here from around the mid-13th century; in the early 1480s the town and its guilds funded a larger late-Gothic replacement. The sacristy was finished in 1487, the presbytery vaulted in 1494 and the southern porch in 1499. Hans Getzinger of Haslach vaulted the nave between 1507 and 1514, and the tower was raised in 1773.
The church holds six altars; the main three-tiered column altar was delivered in 1688 by the Český Krumlov sculptor and carver Martin Lindenmayer and reaches up into the presbytery vault. The Rosary Chapel, a circular addition 6.4 m across, was built by the Rosary Brotherhood in 1760 and is covered by a low dome with a lantern.
The church stands in the upper part of Chvalšiny's square, with the square tower and pyramid roof rising on its south side and the round Marian chapel on the north. The nave is entered through the south porch portal; the chapel connects to the sacristy by a narrow passage along the north wall.
The church has kept its original roof trusses from the building period and the tracery fillings of its windows. In the nave vault, Hans Getzinger left his name written at the apex, and the presbytery keystone is decorated with a rosette. The sacristy doorway bears the year 1489 together with two horseshoes and a rosette on its shield.
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