kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie (Vlkoš) Church

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Vlkoš is a Roman Catholic parish church built in the late Baroque style between 1773 and 1780. It is protected as a cultural monument.

However, a church has stood here long before that. The first written mention of the village from October 18, 1248 speaks of mass being celebrated in a devastated church. In 1397 its patron was Hynek z Ronova. Vlkoš later belonged to the Milotice parish, and the building of the new church was entrusted to the Milotice chaplain Tomáš Fiala. The old church was demolished. On its site, František Ludvík Serényi laid the cornerstone on June 19, 1773.

Construction took seven years with several interruptions. Serényi died on March 4, 1780, and as patron was buried in the crypt of the still unfinished church. During a later examination of the crypt, skeletal remains of two adults and one child were found along with fragments of decorative fabrics. That same year, the church was consecrated by the Milotice dean Bartoloměj Goltman.

Around the church there used to be a cemetery enclosed by a stone wall, which is today separately protected as a monument. However, after a cholera epidemic in 1831, the dead began to be buried elsewhere. In 1856 the church underwent a complete repair. Four years later, a storm damaged its roof and knocked off the cross. An extensive reconstruction along with the building of the rectory was carried out between 1903 and 1904 by the Kyjov builder Eusebius Cibulka.

Three bells were confiscated during the First World War. New bells from 1927 met the same fate during the Second World War. The current bells date from 1973. The church suffered heavily in April 1945. During the liberation of the village, it was hit by 56 artillery shells over ten days. The last complete reconstruction took place between 2001 and 2003, when the roof and facade were repaired and the interior was repainted.

The single-nave structure stands on a gentle slope in the middle of the village and forms the dominant feature of the surroundings. A staircase of 25 steps leads to it. On it stands a cross with the text I am the way, the truth, and the life, and at its end statues of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. Just before the staircase is the Chapel of Saint Florian, and across the road is a single-story rectory building.

The main altar, pulpit, and baptismal font come from the workshop of the Brno sculptor Ondřej Schweigel. The painting on the main altar was painted by the Jesuit painter Ignác Raab.