Kostel svaté Kateřiny (Klimkovice) Church

The Church of Saint Catherine is a Roman Catholic parish church in the centre of Klimkovice. It originated as a Gothic structure.

Its beginnings are uncertain. The church inventory records bells dated 1251 and 1261. Some sources therefore suggest that a wooden chapel already stood here in the thirteenth century. Documents from that time have not survived, most likely they burned in fires in the years 1848 and 1854. It is believed that the oldest part, namely the presbytery and short nave, was built around 1400. On the ceiling above the present vault remains a Gothic triumphal arch made of dressed ashlar. Based on this, the original nave was probably higher than the current one. On the ceiling there is also part of the frame of a long-since bricked-up Gothic window with remnants of ochre plaster.

Further reconstruction likely took place during the time when the estate was managed by Johanka of Bítov. This is suggested by the date 1547 on the transom of a small window in the old sacristy and the coat of arms of the Bítov family on the keystones of the vault in the nave. Most of the inhabitants then converted to Lutheranism. Johanka's husband Hynek the First of Vrbna therefore had a smaller brick church of the Holy Trinity built for the Catholics.

In 1572, Ondřej Bzenec of Markvartic purchased the estate. In the years 1578 to 1579 he had the castle and church rebuilt in the Renaissance style. He dedicated the church to Saint Catherine, the patroness of his wife. The building received a tower, which at the same time protected the southern side of the castle wing. The windows on its western wall are shaped like lancets. A corridor connected the first floor of the castle with the gallery. Later the present sacristy was created, originally a mortuary chamber, which has served as a sacristy since 1766. In the presbytery, Bzenec established a family crypt. He himself was buried in it after being killed in 1595 on the way from Opava. His nephew Kryštof, whose death ended the family line, is also buried there. Bzenec's efforts to install a Catholic priest in the church were unsuccessful.

After disputes over inheritance, Klimkovice fell to the Vlčeks, who had embraced the Catholic faith. From 1628 a Catholic priest again administered the parish. The most significant member of the family, Jindřich Vilém Wilczek, was a field marshal and ambassador to the Russian tsar Peter the Great, in Poland, Prussia and Denmark. In the years 1730 to 1738 he had a side chapel of John of Nepomuk built as a family crypt. He has been buried in it since 1739 together with his son Josef Maria and grandson František Josef.

On 30 August 1848 a fire broke out in a tavern on the square, which destroyed a large part of Klimkovice. On 21 April 1854 the Klimkovice rectory then caught fire.