kostel sv. Martina (Lidice) Church

The Church of Saint Martin stood on a hilltop in the original village of Lidice. Today, only its remains are left in the Lidice Memorial grounds, which is designated as a national cultural monument.

The first mention of the church dates back to 1352, when it was already a parish church. At that time it was small and occupied only the space of what would later become the presbytery and sacristy. During the Hussite Wars, in 1420 and 1421, it was burned down. The Thirty Years' War devastated it again. Between 1640 and 1644 it underwent expensive repairs and was given a tower.

A major transformation came in 1729. Anna Maria of Tuscany, the owner of the Buštěhrad estate, had the church rebuilt and expanded in the Baroque style. The construction was led by architect Václav Špaček and was completed in 1732. The original presbytery became the sacristy, the nave became the presbytery, and a new nave with a tower was added. Thanks to its elevated location, the church became the dominant feature of the village. The Grand Duchess had a richly decorated altar of Saint Martin transported here from her residence in Zákupy. For the church she also acquired the relics of Saint Primus, which were placed behind the altar in a glass case.

Already in 1741 the structure began to deteriorate. Instead of a brick dome, a flat imitation vault made of wooden boards and plaster was created. It was decorated with a fresco depicting the Ascension of Saint Martin by Jan Karel Kovář. In 1852 the tower received a clock. In 1859 Antonín Friebel restored the ceiling frescoes. In 1861 a painting of Saint Martin by Rudolf Müller replaced the sculpture on the main altar.

The end came in June 1942. Lidice had nothing to do with the assassination attempt on Heydrich. Nevertheless, Karl Hermann Frank obtained Hitler's approval for their annihilation. The Nazis seized Reverend Josef Štemberka from the rectory to force him to open the church. They looted monstrances, chalices, church gold, and parish records from the rectory. They plundered the church, despite Frank's order to forbid looting. The Baroque statues were taken by Harald Wiesmann, the commander of the Kladno Gestapo, to decorate the fireplace in his apartment in Innsbruck. The priest spent his last hours in the basement of the Horák farmhouse, where he prayed with the other men and blessed them. He was shot as one of the last.

The church was set on fire on June tenth, 1942, and its dome collapsed during the fire. The Nazis then shelled it and razed it to the ground along with the entire village.

Only the entrance doors survived. When valuables were being transported, they served as side boards on wagons to keep the cargo from falling. Today they are part of the permanent exhibition of the memorial museum. The church's ground plan is marked by paving slightly above ground level. The perimeter is formed by sandstone slabs and the interior is grassed over. In 2014, a new outdoor altar with an image of the Virgin Mary of Lidice was created in the middle of the foundations.