Church of Saint Bartholomew

Church of Saint Bartholomew is a Baroque parish church standing on the village square of Lovčice, a small village in the Hradec Králové district of the Czech Republic, near Nový Bydžov and Chlumec nad Cidlinou.

How old is the parish here?

Records show a parish in Lovčice going back to before 1384, making it one of the older ones in this part of the Hradec Králové region. The building on the square today, though, is not the first church to have stood there.

What stood on this site before?

Before the current structure was raised, a wooden church dating from the 14th century occupied the same spot. When it was eventually replaced, some of its furnishings and several of its bells were kept and carried over into the new building.

Who paid for the present church, and when was it built?

The Baroque church standing today was completed in 1714, commissioned by Count Václav Norbert Octavian Kinský (1642–1719), who owned the Chlumec nad Cidlinou estate that this land belonged to at the time. Above the entrance sits the Kinský family's coat of arms, showing three wolf's teeth, the emblem of this influential Bohemian noble family.

What does the building look like?

It's a single-nave, rectangular church, and — unusually for a parish church — it has no tower of its own. The chancel is covered by a barrel vault, while the nave has a flat ceiling. Most of the interior furnishing dates from the late 18th century and is Rococo in style, added several decades after the church itself was consecrated.

Why is there a separate bell tower next to the church?

Since the church building has no tower, that role is filled by a freestanding, brick-built belfry next to it. It replaced an older wooden bell tower and went up in the same year as the church, 1714. The belfry has two storeys and a tent (pyramidal) roof, and it houses the bells that survived from the earlier wooden church — the oldest of them cast in 1500, 1585 and 1607.

What's worth seeing inside?

Among the furnishings, look out for a painting of the Holy Family by Josef Mathauser from 1860, a pewter baptismal font dated 1614, and an organ built by Ignác Welzel in 1841. In the churchyard outside, two historic figural gravestones have also survived, the older one dated 1585.

Is the site protected as a heritage monument?

The whole complex — the church, its belfry, and the surrounding wall — is listed on the Czech register of immovable cultural monuments. The church itself remains the property of the Roman Catholic parish of Lovčice, which today forms part of a pastoral structure that also covers Žiželice.

How do you get there, and when should you visit?

Lovčice sits in the central part of the Hradec Králové district, close to Nový Bydžov and Chlumec nad Cidlinou — the estate whose owner, Count Kinský, financed the church you see today. It stands on the square in the northern part of the village, easy to spot once you arrive. As this is a small working parish church rather than a museum with fixed opening hours, the most reliable way to see the interior is to arrange a visit with the parish in advance or attend a service.

Frequently asked questions

When was the current church in Lovčice built? In 1714, commissioned by Count Václav Norbert Octavian Kinský, owner of the Chlumec nad Cidlinou estate.

Does the church have its own tower? No — the church building itself has no tower. Bell-ringing duties fall to a separate, brick-built belfry standing next to it, raised the same year, 1714.

Has anything survived from the earlier wooden church? Yes. Bells cast in 1500, 1585 and 1607 survive from the 14th-century wooden church that once stood on the same site, and now hang in the belfry.

Is the church protected as a heritage site? Yes, the entire complex — church, belfry and surrounding wall — is entered on the Czech register of immovable cultural monuments.