Church of Saint Martin, Gothic church in Strážiště, Czech Republic

The Church of Saint Martin is a single-nave rectangular building with a flat ceiling and a recessed three-sided presbytery, originally Gothic. Two symmetrical prismatic towers, 28 metres high, flank the presbytery, with an octagonal sanctus turret between them. The nave has a hipped roof, and the towers are topped by sheet-metal onion domes with lanterns.

The church is first documented in 1250, and masonry of its presbytery survives from the 13th century. It was rebuilt in late Gothic form between 1512 and 1529 under Plasy abbot Linhart, then enlarged in the 17th century by Karel Maxmilián Lažanský. After 1727 Marie Gabriela Lažanská had it remodelled in Baroque style to plans by Tomáš Haffenecker. It was listed as a cultural monument in 1958.

The church is dedicated to Saint Martin, whose painted image above the main altar dates from around 1730 and was made by the Manětín dean Jan František Händl. The side altars hold polychrome woodcarvings of Saint John of Nepomuk and the Immaculate Virgin Mary from the workshop of the Manětín sculptor Josef Herscher, created in the first third of the 18th century.

The church stands on the village green of Strážiště, with the parish cemetery adjoining it; a Baroque gate is set in the cemetery wall. The main entrance faces north, and the two prismatic towers rise to 28 metres. The building is a protected monument, so interior access depends on the parish in Kralovice, which administers it today.

Two Renaissance bells cast in 1525 and 1529 hang in a hand-hewn bell frame; the church also keeps a Gothic window walled up in its rear wall and, in the cemetery wall behind the presbytery, the 1765 tombstone of Plasy abbot Fortunat Hartmann.