Church of Saint Stephen, Catholic church in Kouřim, Czech Republic

The Church of Saint Stephen is a late Gothic three-nave basilica with two massive towers that originally were taller and joined by a covered bridge. Its west facade has a large window and a neo-Gothic portal. Inside, the walls carry a gallery of fifteen Renaissance tombstones in marble and red sandstone, and beneath the presbytery is the early Gothic St Catherine crypt with an eight-sided star vault and Gothic paintings.

The church was built in the 1260s together with the founding of the town, as a three-nave basilica in the Burgundian style, on the site of an older Romanesque shrine. It survived fires in 1334, 1567, 1641, 1643, 1659, 1665 and 1670; the last destroyed the vault, towers and most Gothic furnishings. After the Thirty Years' War the town could not afford repairs for 17 years, and the Baroque restoration was completed in 1740.

The church kept two late-Gothic and Renaissance liturgical songbooks: a gradual from 1470 in Czech choral notation and an Advent hymnbook from 1581, reminders of the local literary brotherhood. The original of the Romanesque Kouřim Lions group, made around 1200 and used as a pulpit or font base, is in the National Museum's Lapidarium, with a copy in the Kouřim Museum.

The church stands on Kouřim's main square, so it is easy to find on foot. The early Gothic crypt of St Catherine beneath the presbytery, with its eight-sided star vault and medieval paintings, is the oldest of its kind in continental Europe and worth seeking out. The separate Renaissance bell tower nearby has bells hung with hearts upward, rung by pedals.

Under the presbytery lies the early Gothic St Catherine's Crypt, whose eight-sided star vault is decorated with Gothic paintings of the martyrdom of St Catherine, the Passion of Christ and angels playing period instruments. A central column symbolises Christ as the Tree of Life, and the space is the oldest of its kind in continental Europe.