Church of Saint Catherine in Choteč, Catholic church in Choteč, Czech Republic.
The Church of Saint Catherine in Choteč is a simple early Baroque single-nave building from 1697–99, designed by J. B. Mathey, with a rectangular nave, a presbytery, a sacristy and an oratory. Its two unusually low towers flank a facade with pilasters and a central risage; above the entrance are the prelate's coat of arms of Bílek z Billenberka and the year 1697. A small cemetery surrounds the church.
Bílek z Billenberka, then owner of Choteč, had the church built in 1697–99 to a design by J. B. Mathey, probably reusing masonry from an earlier church. It originally had two tall, slender towers; after lightning struck one in 1856 and part of it collapsed, both were lowered to the same height despite local protests. In 1995–2014, 900,000 CZK were drawn from the Programme for the Rescue of Architectural Heritage for repairs.
The church belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Třebotov, which has worked with the municipality of Choteč on repairs since 2000. Its three original bells, dedicated to St Catherine, St Wenceslas and St Barbara, were removed in 1942; two larger ones were found in 1945 on Rohanský ostrov in Prague and rehung, then moved in 1984 to the church of Sts Peter and Paul in Radotín, where the Catherine and Wenceslas bells remain.
The church stands on a hill above the village, surrounded by a small cemetery; the climb from the village is on foot. The building is in the care of the Třebotov Roman Catholic parish and the Choteč municipality, which have shared repairs since 2000, so access to the interior may be limited outside services.
The two bells, St Catherine and St Wenceslas, were removed in 1942 and found in May 1945 by a local woman on the bell "burial ground" at Rohanský ostrov in Prague; in 1984 P. Evžen Hlaváček moved them to the church of Sts Peter and Paul in Radotín, where they remain.
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