Church of Saints Peter and Paul

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul stands on a low hill above Bernartice, a small village that belongs to the municipality of Stráž in the Tachov district of western Bohemia. Today home to roughly 85 permanent residents, the village has this Baroque church as its defining landmark.

Where exactly does the church stand?

The building rises above a triangular village green, in the southeastern part of Bernartice, ringed by a stone-walled cemetery that is still partly in use. Below the church lie the ruins of a former manor house, and the rectory stands directly across from it. From the churchyard, the ground falls away toward the surrounding fields and woodland typical of this stretch of the Czech-German borderland.

How old is the settlement, and how old is the church?

Bernartice ranks among the oldest settlements in the area: the first written record of the village dates to 1158–1173, and local tradition credits its founding to a man named Bernat. A church on this site is documented as early as 1384. That medieval building did not survive, however — it was torn down in 1737, and the structure standing today was raised between 1741 and 1750. The architect is not recorded by name, only that he came from western Bohemia; construction went ahead on the initiative of the Löwenstein family, who owned the local estate at the time.

What does the building look like?

The church has a rectangular floor plan with a widened central section of the nave. To the east follows a straight-ended presbytery, then a sacristy of equal height with concave side walls. At the west end, in front of the main façade, a slender tower rises to a pyramidal cap — the feature that makes the church visible long before a visitor reaches the village.

What is inside?

The interior decoration is the work of the painter V. S. Schmidt, who came from nearby Planá. The high altar takes the form of a portal framing a fresco of Saints Peter and Paul meeting, set above a low wall with a tabernacle. Flanking it stand statues of St Joseph and St Nicholas, carved around 1750 by the sculptor J. Artschlager of Stráž.

What about the cemetery around it?

The church is encircled by a cemetery, and its central section remains in active use. Older gravestones survive along the enclosure walls, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries, marking the graves of the village's pre-war, largely German-speaking population.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Bernartice? It stands on a hill above the village of Bernartice, part of the Stráž municipality in the Tachov district of western Bohemia, at coordinates 49.6280, 12.8016.

When was the current building constructed? The present Baroque church dates from 1741–1750. It replaced an earlier church first recorded in 1384, which was demolished in 1737.

Is there a cemetery next to the church? Yes. A walled cemetery surrounds the church; part of it is still used today, and older 19th- and early 20th-century gravestones remain along its walls.

Who designed and decorated the church? The architect's name has not been recorded. The interior painting is attributed to V. S. Schmidt of Planá, and the altar sculptures to J. Artschlager of Stráž, made around 1750.