Church of Saint John the Baptist, Romanesque rotunda church in Pravonín, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint John the Baptist in Pravonín is a Romanesque rotunda with a circular nave, an eastern apse and a western prismatic tower topped in wood. The nave walls are 1–1.2 m thick and the tower walls 1.4 m; a fragment of the original Romanesque entrance portal survives by the sacristy door.
The first written mention of the church dates from 1350, but masonry analysis suggests the rotunda was built around 1200 or in the first third of the 13th century. The Romanesque tower was added later, and Baroque modifications raised the apse to the height of the nave and removed the triumphal arch. The church is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.
The church is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, and its Baroque furnishings date from the first half of the 18th century, including the pulpit. A fragment of the original Romanesque entrance portal survives by the door to the sacristy, added in the 17th century. The building is listed as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.
The church stands in Pravonín, with the sacristy on the north side and the tower on the west. The walls of the nave are 1–1.2 m thick and those of the tower 1.4 m, so the interior is dim; the flat ceiling and the lunette vaults over the Baroque addition are easiest to see in morning light. The original Romanesque portal is preserved by the sacristy door.
The church is a Romanesque rotunda, not Gothic: its round nave was built of small, regularly coursed stones around the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The tower came later, and its larger stones were laid as separate walls tied only at the outer corners. The nave walls are 1–1.2 m thick, the tower's 1.4 m.
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