Evangelický kostel v Orlové Church

The church of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession stands on Cingr Hill in Město, a district of Orlová. It is a single-nave building in the late Classicist style, built by the local Lutheran congregation and now protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

After the Patent of Toleration was issued in 1781, the Lutherans of the Cieszyn region began building prayer houses again. For a long time, however, the Lutherans of Orlová had a long way to go: they walked eleven kilometres to the nearest prayer house in Dolní Bludovice. They nevertheless worked towards a church of their own, and as early as 1827 they began making bricks for the planned building. Step by step they gained other institutions too: a Lutheran school was founded in 1840 and a cemetery in 1847. The decisive moment came on 22 January 1860, when a meeting finally resolved to start construction.

The foundation stone was ceremonially laid on 24 June 1861, the feast of St John. An important historical document was placed in the foundations beneath the tower: the imperial patent of 8 April 1861 granting equal rights to the Protestant denominations. The building was carried out by the builder Gross from Cieszyn, who also built the single-storey parsonage at the same time. Work progressed quickly: the church was consecrated by Superintendent Lumnitzer as early as 15 October 1862.

The architecture of the church reflects its time. It is a masonry building with a single tower and a polygonal chancel. The church is covered by a system of masonry vaults made of solid fired bricks. The nave has a gabled roof supported by a timber truss. Its position on the top of Cingr Hill made the church a landmark of the town.

The following decades, however, were not kind to the church. Deep mining in the area caused lasting damage to the building, which had to be repaired several times. In 1911 a major renovation took place to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone. In 1919 new bells were hung, but they were later lost to wartime requisitioning. In 1982 the building was structurally secured, and in 1983 the façade was repaired and the church was consecrated again.

At the beginning of the 21st century, however, the worst was feared. In 2004 the church went out of use because it was in danger of collapse. There was even talk of demolishing it completely. In the end the situation was resolved: in 2005 the church was structurally secured once more, and the Lutheran congregation returned to it. A Lutheran cemetery lay next to the church from 1847 to 2001.

Today the church is part of the Zapomenutá Orlová (Forgotten Orlová) historical trail, and visitors will also find an information board here. The building recalls the long effort of the local Lutheran community to have a church of its own.