Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie / Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary - Žatec (North-West Bohemia) - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

Apart from the Baroque appearance, the architectural history of the main Roman Catholic church in the town of Žatec, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie), is longer than 1000 years. Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is parish church of Žatec Roman Catholic community.

On the site of today's church, on the forecourt of the Žatec castle, stood the original Romanesque church of the tribute parish of Žatec around 1004. King John of Luxembourg donated tithes to the town in 1336 to rebuild the church and in 1336-1380 a Gothic building was built on the original site. The new three-nave structure with a long presbytery replaced the original Romanesque building (from which a modified westwerk was left) in the end of the 14th century. The foundations of the bell tower were laid in 1380. The Baroque style significantly affected the appearance of the church in 1702, when the western facade was remodelled. South of the western towers, the central chapel of St. John of Nepomuk (kaple sv. Jana Nepomuckého) was built in the years 1724–1728. The western pair of slender prismatic Baroque towers, growing from the former western facade, was built after the fire of 1738 (probably in 1740). The original wooden part of the bell tower was replaced by the massive Baroque southern tower, built by P. Losch, in the years 1770–1773. The vault of the church was then restored by master mason A. Grimm after a fire in 1840. The helmets of the western towers were built under the leadership of Fr. Tipmann. In 1897, the heads and strips of ribs were added to the nave, the southern portal was raised and a Gothic vault was erected here, a bar was built, some church windows were enlarged, and the chapel of St. John of Nepomuk and the entrance arch to the chapel of St. Jan Nepomucký. The church fell into disrepair after the Second World War, and was gradually repaired after 1990.

The church consists of a Gothic three-nave hall with a polygonal presbytery with a vestibule on the south side. On the north side is the sacristy and the vestibule. To the west is a Baroque two-tower facade. On the south side of the church is the massive Baroque bell tower. The nave and presbytery are divided by armrests, portals and tall pointed windows with tracery. The western façade, with the portal in the axis, is enclosed by two towers on the sides and terminated by a triangular gable. The bell tower is divided at the corners by a high pilaster order and covered with an onion-shaped roof. The presbytery is vaulted with cross vaults. Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk, which is connected to the southwest corner of the church, is polygonal. The chapel is divided into corners on the outside and inside of the pilaster and is a vaulted by dome with a lantern. The vestibules are cross-rib vaulted.

The interior is mostly early and high-Baroque, partly neo-Gothic, in the lining of the western portal is a Romanesque relief of St. Peter from the middle of the 13th century.

Source: excerpted and translated from Wikipedia and National Heritage Institute portal.

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