Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Romanesque church in Planá u Mariánských Lázní, Czech Republic
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a single-nave rectangular building with a narrower square presbytery, standing on a slight slope about 0.5 km east of Náměstí Svobody in Planá. Its south side has a Romanesque portal with an arched frieze, and the nave is lit by narrow round-arched windows. The presbytery is vaulted with a single bay of cross vaulting and covered by medieval wall paintings.
Written records from the early Middle Ages do not survive; archaeological research around 1980 placed the church's founding at the start of the 13th century, on a Slavic burial ground settled in the 10th and 11th centuries. It burned with the whole suburb during the Thirty Years' War, was repaired and given Baroque treatment in 1675, and was abolished in 1787 under Joseph II and later converted into a barn.
The church interior now serves as a gallery and venue for cultural and social events, not a tower gallery. It stands in the centre of the former settlement that became a suburb, enclosed by a boundary wall. The building was deconsecrated in 1787 under Emperor Joseph II and later adapted as a barn before its late-20th-century reconstruction.
Access is by direct train from Mariánské Lázně or by driving through the Plzeň Region. The best time to visit is outside winter months when the location is easily accessible and the gallery is operating.
The south portal's carved archivolt and the east presbytery window survive from the Romanesque phase; the presbytery walls carry medieval wall paintings, and the broken triumphal arch separating presbytery from nave dates to the 13th century. A rectangular tower once stood on the presbytery's north side but no longer exists.
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