Kostel svaté Kateřiny (Vrbice) Church

The Church of Saint Catherine and Saint James the Greater stands in Vrbice, which is today part of Bohumín in the Karviná district. It is a branch church of the Roman Catholic parish of Starý Bohumín. In 2011 it was declared a cultural monument.

The church was built on the site of an older wooden church. That church was dismantled in 1910 and in June of that same year the foundation stone of the new building was laid. The project was designed by architect and builder from Hrušov Anton Schiebel. Construction cost 82 thousand crowns. On November 12, 1911, the church was consecrated by vicar general Jiří Kolek from Fryštát. The solemn consecration was then performed in 1913 by the Wrocław archbishop Georg von Kopp. During an air raid on April 26, 1945, the church was damaged.

It is a single-nave building made of red brick. The chancel does not face east as is customary, but rather to the northwest. The ground plan is rectangular and the chancel is closed by a polygonal apse. On both sides of it are sacristies, one of which is two-storied and has an oratory on top opening into the chancel. The hip roof is covered with sheet metal and a small tower, a sanctus bell turret, sits on it. The facade is vertically divided by tall pilasters attached to the wall. The windows are reminiscent of Gothic and feature ornamental stained glass.

A prismatic tower with a slender pyramidal roof is attached to the southeastern facade. It is through this tower that one enters the church, via a stepped portal topped with a Tudor arch. Next to the tower a spiral staircase leads to the gallery and into the tower.

The nave inside is vaulted with a ribbed cross vault, the chancel with a six-part ribbed vault. The organ was made in 1920 by the Krnov company Rieger-Kloss. The interior furnishings come from the workshop of Ludwig Lincinger from Linz. In 2015 the church was newly painted.

The bells from the wooden church were moved into the new church. Two more bells were cast between the wars by the Brno company Adalbert Hiller and Son and in 1927 were supplemented by the workshop Burčil and Roos from Hradec Králové. In March 1942 three bells were confiscated for military purposes. These were the bell of Saint Catherine weighing 360 kilograms, the bell of the Virgin Mary weighing 205 kilograms, and the bell of Saint Joseph weighing 155 kilograms. Only a small bell of Saint Cyril and Methodius, weighing 25 kilograms, remained in the church.

The church is one of the stops on a nature trail in Bohumín that connects buildings made of red brick.