Church of Saint John the Baptist, Roman Catholic church in Stebno, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint John the Baptist is a Catholic church in the village of Stebno, built with stone walls and traditional religious architecture. The building stands centrally in the village and shapes its appearance.
The church is first documented in 1337, when a priest named Jan is recorded there; the knightly family of Stebno held patronage rights until 1380. A fire damaged it in 1650, and reconstruction by 1656 added the tower, confirmed by dendrochronology of its timber. Further alterations followed in 1732, and the parish was suppressed during the Thirty Years' War and restored in 1856. It has been a cultural monument since 1964.
The village church is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist; a parish priest named Jan is recorded here in 1337. The parish was suppressed during the Thirty Years' War and attached to Jesenice, then to Malměřice's Saint Anne church in 1786, regained its own vicar in 1790 and full parish status in 1856. The Renaissance stone font of 1593 bears the coats of arms of Zikuna of Gutštejn and Jaroslav Libštejnský of Kolovrat.
The church stands on a slight rise in the middle of the village green, with semicircular portals on its south and west sides. The tower's lower storey is lit by four windows and the upper by four segmental ones. A June 2021 storm damaged the tower roof, which was repaired over the following year.
The medieval core of the church survives in the shape of the presbytery, whose ground plan matches the Gothic presbyteries at Černochov, Počedělice and Nepomyšl. Its buttresses still show squared ashlar quoins in places, and the masonry stratigraphy shows the presbytery is older than the tower.
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