Kostel Narození Panny Marie (Bitozeves) Church

The Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary stands in Nehasice in the Louny region. It is a Gothic structure from the fourteenth century, which was remodeled in the Baroque style in the seventeen seventies. Since nineteen sixty-four, it has been a protected cultural monument.

A church already existed here in thirteen fifty-nine, when a local priest is mentioned as a participant in the installation of a new priest in Staňkovice. From subsequent years, we know the names of several clergymen. The last documented priest of Nehasice was Mikuláš Gurein in fourteen twenty-seven, a canon at the Church of Saint George at Prague Castle. From the second half of the fifteenth century, the church was administered by Utraquist priests. After the Thirty Years' War, Nehasice was no longer the seat of a parish, and the church became a subsidiary to the church in Bitozeves.

Who built the church is uncertain. It could have been Jindřich Škopek of Dubé, who had patronage rights to the church in the eighties of the fourteenth century and held the position of supreme chamberlain at the royal court. An older church could have been replaced with a new one under his patronage, or completely rebuilt. In the fifteenth century, a western portal and a portal to the sacristy were added. In fifteen ninety-three, Kateřina of Doupov restored the local parish. The bell tower above the sacristy and two windows in the southern wall of the nave likely date from that time. In eighteen fifty-seven, part of the presbytery masonry was demolished and replaced with new, and the nave walls were heightened.

The church is a single-nave structure, ending on the east with a rectangular presbytery. On the north side, a prismatic tower with a wooden bell chamber adjoins it, and on the south side, a Baroque mortuary chapel. Entry to the nave with a reed ceiling is through a late Gothic portal. The presbytery is vaulted with three bays of cross vaulting and is lit by a pointed tracery window. The sacristy on the ground floor of the tower has rib vaulting. The ribs converge at a boss with a coat of arms of three horseshoes.

The altars that still stood in the church at the end of the sixties of the twentieth century have not survived. A stone baptismal font with reliefs around the periphery from the second half of the sixteenth century remains, as well as a medieval altar mensa. In the presbytery lie three marble tombstones of the families of Vřesovci and Hruškovi of Března. Noteworthy is a sandstone epitaph with pilasters and a triangular pediment, which belongs to the family of Kostomlatský of Vřesovice. A wooden pulpit has also been preserved.

There were organs here at least three times. The oldest, a small positive organ with two stops, is documented in seventeen thirty-seven. In eighteen forty-three, it was replaced by an instrument made by the organ builder Josef Gröbl.