Church of Saint Anne

The Church of Saint Anne stands today as a striking ruin on a hilltop above the abandoned village of Pořejov, part of the Žebráky municipality in the Tachov district of the Plzeň Region in western Czechia. Once a modest pilgrimage church, it now survives only as bare perimeter walls, drawing visitors interested in abandoned places and the history of the Czech-Bavarian borderland.

Why was a church built on this hill?

The church was raised between 1660 and 1663 on the initiative of Veronika Kateřina Alsterlová, owner of the Pořejov estate. She commissioned the Baroque building on the site of an older wooden chapel as a votive offering of thanks after recovering from a serious illness. The design is attributed to an unnamed architect from Prague, a common arrangement for smaller church foundations in the Czech countryside at the time.

How did the church's fortunes change over the centuries?

The building served as a place of worship for more than a hundred years until 1786, when it was closed as part of the Josephine reforms that reorganized the parish network across the Habsburg monarchy. This was not the end of the story, though: thanks to donations from believers in the surrounding villages, the church was restored and reconsecrated in 1808. For the following decades of the 19th and early 20th centuries, it continued to function as a pilgrimage church for people from across the region.

Why did the church end up in ruins?

The turning point came after the Second World War. Following 1945, the expulsion of the German population from the borderland left the nearby villages of Pořejov and Bažantov deserted. Without a congregation or upkeep, the church quickly fell out of use and began to deteriorate — within less than seventy years of being abandoned, it turned into a complete ruin. Today, only the perimeter walls of the once-substantial Baroque building remain, stripped of roof and interior fittings.

What can visitors see on site?

Visitors today can trace the outline of the former church through its surviving walls, which still reveal the original floor plan and give a sense of the building's Baroque proportions. The setting — a hilltop among the forests of the former borderland — has the same stark, melancholic atmosphere typical of the depopulated settlements scattered across the Český les (Bohemian Forest) region. It is a site of interest for anyone curious about the postwar expulsions and about rural sacred architecture.

How do you get there?

The ruin sits in a fairly remote spot near the former village of Pořejov, on a hill within the Žebráky municipality in the Tachov district. Given its peripheral location and the lack of developed tourist infrastructure, it is best to drive to the nearest settlement and continue on foot along local forest paths. The former village is uninhabited, so there are no services or information points on site.

Frequently asked questions

Can you go inside the Church of Saint Anne? No — only the perimeter walls survive without a roof, so a visit means viewing the ruin from the outside rather than exploring an interior.

When was the church built? Between 1660 and 1663, on the site of an earlier wooden chapel, funded by Veronika Kateřina Alsterlová.

Why did the church fall into ruin? After the postwar expulsion of the German population, the villages of Pořejov and Bažantov were abandoned, the church lost its congregation, and within a few decades it deteriorated into ruins.

Are there other attractions nearby? The surrounding area belongs to the sparsely visited, forested Český les borderland, known for the remnants of villages depopulated after 1945.