Sv. Jiří

St. George's Chapel stands on the village green in Doubravčice, in the Kolín district, right next to the local war memorial. It's a small building, but one with an outsized story: the structure visitors see today is a careful reconstruction of a chapel that vanished from the village for more than half a century.

Where did this chapel come from?

The site's history goes back to a time when the Doubravčice estate belonged to Maria Theresa of Savoy. She funded a wooden bell tower on this spot, paying for the bell herself. That wooden structure was eventually replaced by a brick chapel, built in 1923, which became a fixture of the village square for almost thirty years.

Why was there no chapel here for decades?

In the early 1950s, the chapel was torn down — a fate shared by many small religious buildings in Czechoslovakia during that period, as state attitudes toward church property shifted and upkeep was abandoned. For roughly sixty years, only villagers' memories and a handful of archival photographs kept the chapel's memory alive.

How was it brought back?

The rebuilding effort started in 2009, using surviving historical photographs as the basis for reconstructing the chapel's original shape. Construction itself ran from June 2010 to August 2011, and the finished building was consecrated on 4 September 2011 by Bishop Karel Herbst. Local chronicler Alena Kvasničková and then-deputy mayor Tomáš Němec were both closely involved, coordinating the historical research and the reconstruction process.

What does the chapel look like?

The rebuilt chapel keeps the modest character typical of rural Bohemian religious architecture. Inside is a niche for the altar, built from local granite and brick — materials chosen to echo the original construction. The walls are plain, finished with a distinctly projecting, profiled cornice. A small gabled superstructure rises above the main body of the building, with an opening for the bell — a common feature of small village chapels in Central Bohemia, where the bell doubled as a signal for the whole community rather than serving a purely liturgical role.

Where exactly is it, and can you visit?

The chapel sits on the main village square of Doubravčice, directly beside the war memorial, making the square a natural focal point of local memory. Doubravčice itself lies about 7.5 km southwest of Český Brod, in the Central Bohemian Region. The chapel is freely accessible and can be viewed from the outside at any time while walking through the village.

Frequently asked questions

Is the current chapel the original 20th-century building? No. The 1923 brick chapel was demolished in the early 1950s. What stands today is a 2010–2011 reconstruction, based on archival photographs of the original.

Who funded the original bell tower on this site? Maria Theresa of Savoy, the estate owner at the time, funded the wooden bell tower and its bell that preceded the brick chapel.

When was the rebuilt chapel consecrated? On 4 September 2011, in a ceremony led by Bishop Karel Herbst.

Does the chapel still serve a religious function today? It remains open to the public as part of the village landscape and a site of local memory next to the war memorial, though it is not a large parish church with regular services.