kostel Povýšení svatého Kříže v Poděbradech Church

The Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross is a three-aisled Roman Catholic church in Poděbrady. It was built in the Gothic style in the 14th century on the site of an older church building, which was perhaps wooden. Until the 18th century, a cemetery surrounded it. It underwent significant alterations in the 16th and 19th centuries. Not far from the church stands the building of the Poděbrady deanery.

The oldest part is the presbytery. It is closed in a five-sided shape and vaulted with a cross-star ribbed vault. It has five windows with sandstone frames. The main three-aisled space is supported by four pillars with nine bays of cross vaulting. It acquired this form in the years 1552 to 1562, when the church was remodeled by the Italian Renaissance builder Giovanni Battista Aostalli de Sala. He also participated in the reconstruction of Poděbrady Castle and is buried in the church as well. Also buried here is Kunhuta ze Šternberka, the first wife of King Jiří z Poděbrad. Her exact location is unknown.

On the south side adjoins a Baroque chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows from the year 1689. Its altar is decorated with a relief of the Elevation of the Holy Cross. In the chapel is the tomb of the noble officials the Longmans of Auen.

The interior is predominantly Rococo and pseudo-Gothic. Its most precious feature is a Renaissance lead baptismal font from the year 1563, made by the Kutná Hora bell-founder Matěj. The late Baroque main altar is hammered from silver-plated copper and dates from the seventies of the 18th century. It was brought into the church from a closed chapel in Nové Mlýny. The Baroque pulpit is from the year 1732 and the confessional from the year 1730. Both side Baroque altars were transferred to the Havířský church building.

The tower in the western façade was built in the year 1818. It replaced the bell tower, which originally stood beside the church. Hanging in it is the bell Vojtěch from the year 1759 and a bell from the year 1974, which was cast by Laetitie Dytrychová in Brodek u Přerova. In the year 1863, a sacristy and oratory of the chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius were added. At the end of the 19th century, the church underwent re-gothicization.

By the church wall stands since the year 1884 a statue of Saint Václav by the sculptor Šejbal. On the nearby square Anežky České, in March 2012, a monument to Saint Anežka České was unveiled by the sculptor Zuzana Čížková. Its capital comes from a pillar capital with a motif of the saint from the 13th century, which comes from the Anežský Monastery in Prague.