Kostel Nanebevstoupení Páně v Borotíně Church

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord belongs to the South Bohemian town of Borotín in the Tábor district. It is a single-nave church in Gothic style with some Baroque elements. It was built in the fourteenth century by the lords of Borotín, probably by Vítek of Borotín in the year thirteen fifty-six. Since nineteen fifty-eight it has been a cultural monument.

At first it was not independent. As a subsidiary church it fell under the parish church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary in Nový Kostelec. It was then dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene and received its present dedication only later. At the request of the manor owner Mikuláš of Borotín, it was separated from the Nový Kostelec parish in thirteen eighty-six and elevated to a parish church. By a document dated nineteenth March thirteen eighty-six, the Prague archbishop Jan of Jenštejn granted permission for the establishment of the parish.

After the Battle of White Mountain, there was a shortage of priests, so the Borotín church came under the parish of Jistebnice. The Borotín parish was restored only in seventeen twenty-four, and it then also included the subsidiary church in Nový Kostelec.

According to parish registers, burials frequently took place in the church, including owners of the Borotín manor. There are tombstones of the Malovec family here, and buried here is Jan Malovec of Pacov, who died in fourteen eighty-eight.

In seventeen ninety-two the church underwent reconstruction. In eighteen sixty-three it was struck by a major fire. Only the vaulted chancel with the main altar and the sacristy remained. The new church nave was then built by Karel Bach. The fire also changed the Gothic tower: its Baroque dome was replaced by a pyramid.

The organ and bells were changed several times here. The organ from eighteen eighty-two was examined by the composer Josef Bohuslav Foerster and remains in the church to this day. Further repairs took place between nineteen hundred and nineteen sixteen. Since nineteen twenty-nine the church has had electric lighting and between nineteen forty-three and nineteen forty-four its interior underwent extensive restoration.

From the original structure, the Gothic chancel has been preserved. Its floor plan consists of five sides of a regular octagon and one rectangular vaulted section. It is six point fifty-five meters high. The vault ribs are terminated conically and behind the altar are round bases. The chancel has three windows with Gothic tracery. The triumphal arch is pointed and measures five point five meters in height.

A Gothic entrance one point eighty-five meters high leads to the sacristy. It has a pointed vault and its edges are bevelled diagonally. The same treatment applies to the Gothic portal in the left wall, which is two point forty-five meters high and one point seventy-eight meters wide. The altar paintings were executed by Bedřich Kamarýt.

Around the church extends a cemetery with a surrounding wall and a mortuary chapel.