Church of Saint Nicholas, Religious monument in Lažiště, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Nicholas is a single-nave Romanesque and early Gothic building from the 13th century. The nave masonry, with a western tribune carried on two arches resting on a square pillar, survives from the earliest phase, and a narrow early Gothic tower with pointed windows stands before the southwest corner. A polygonal presbytery and the Chapel of Saint John of Nepomuk were added in the first half of the 15th century, while the Chapel of the Virgin Mary and the nave windows are Baroque.
The nave walls, the early Gothic tower and the south portal date from the 13th century, probably the 1230s or 1240s, when the church was built in late Romanesque style. In the first half of the 15th century a polygonal presbytery and the north Chapel of Saint John of Nepomuk were added; the south Chapel of the Virgin Mary and the nave windows are Baroque. Minor building work followed in the 19th century.
The church is the parish church of the Roman Catholic parish of Lažiště and gives the village its name-bearing landmark on a slight rise beside the cemetery and its mortuary. The north chapel, later dedicated to Saint John of Nepomuk, holds Gothic wall paintings of the Passion cycle from the second half of the 14th century, and angels painted in the same period cover the vault of the presbytery.
The church stands on a slight rise within the village, next to a cemetery with a mortuary, and the tower projects in front of the south-west corner of the nave. The south side of the tower has a narrow trefoil window, and the south portal is the oldest entrance. The interior is normally closed outside services, so the exterior is what a passer-by sees.
The vault ribs in the presbytery have a pear-shaped profile, and the sanctuary niche on its north side ends in a three-sided gable with plant decoration topped by a finial. On the tower's south side is a narrow trefoil window. Angels painted in the second half of the 14th century survive on the vault above the presbytery's end.
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