Kostel svaté Kateřiny ve Mšeci Church

The Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria stands on a square in the heart of the village Mšec and is its distinct dominant place. It is a filial church under the Roman Catholic Church, which until 2003 served as a parochial church, then was joined to the Neo-Scaster parish. Today it is protected as a cultural monument.

The beginnings of the church date back to the Middle Ages when there was an older Gothic temple. The tower of the original building has a rich history. In 1601, on the initiative of Matthias Štampach from Štampach, a member of the court of the leaders and captain of the Slanské Region, they hung a big bell. This was at a time when the Mšek owner was getting his country a useful investment.

The present face of the church bears the features of the nineteenth century. In 1780 they built a new baroque one-boat church in the place of the older temple according to the design of Master Václav Výchl. The interior is a Baroque altar from 1782, the author of which was Ignác František Platzer. The dominant motif of the altar space is the Baroque painting of St. Catherine with the rococo frame from the hand of D. Gran de la Torre. After the fire that struck the church in 1832, the tower was restored in a new form. Only in modern times, since 2008, two new bells were placed in the tower: a larger bell with a weight of 200 kilograms cast from iron cast iron with the name of the Holy Heart of Jesus and a smaller bell weighing 80 kilograms called Saint Joseph.

The most valuable equipment of the church is the organ. These dates from 1587 and are among the oldest preserved organ in Bohemia. They were created during the period of the greatest boom in organ music and were originally placed in a Gothic church. When it was demolished, they were carefully moved to a new Baroque temple. The tool has one pedal for the game with legs, a stand-alone table and three whistle fields in the prospectus with beautifully carved details. From the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, the organ had two manuals and contained so-called "continuoverk," which were small organs hidden right in the playing table. At the end of the nineteenth century, the continuoverk was removed.

Many experts have taken care of organ maintenance historically. In the second half of the eighteenth century, it was served by the organist Gút from Clean by Rakovníka, belonging to the oldest generation of tools on Rakovnice. The technical service of the bellows, which are 2.5 to 1.5 metres, was carried out by so-called calcants - persons who kept the air pressure in their bellows. In 1969, Marie Plusilova, one of the church members, performed this demanding work. Currently, the instrument was handled by the organist Adam Viktor, who is trying to collect funds for urgent repairs through concerts and charity collections. The main problem is staying infected with the organ with the worm and bad condition of the bellows. Although about 30,000 crowns were selected for the most necessary repairs and cleaning of whistles, the organ would benefit from further care. However, the visitor will find a quality tool here, which, despite various challenges, has retained its essential parts and continues to serve the church life of the village.