kostel svatého Jakuba (Osová Bítýška) Church

The church of St. Jacob the Elder is located in the heart of the village Osová Bítýška and serves as a parish temple of the local Roman Catholic parish. It is a single-boat Baroque building with a Gothic core, supplemented by a prism bell tower in close proximity. The church is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic along with the fragment of the wall and Baroque gate.

The church has written references dating back to the 13th century, when the local parish belonged to a commendation of the order of German knights in Opava. At the beginning of the 16th century, the church got into Hussite hands, but in 1608 it had a Catholic priest again. But his income was modest, as the owners of the estate remained the Hussite faith. The situation deteriorated so much that in 1633 the new priest Petr Vojtovius discovered the parish and the church of the ruined and without believers. The parish had thus ceased its activities, and in 1646 it became a philistine of the parish in Heřmanov. The conversion took place in 1684, when the parish was restored as separate with the respective municipalities: Osová Bítýška, Osova, Vlkov, Březí, Ondruska, Zábázka, Březka, Níhov, Ořechov and Ronov. In 1788, however, the parish was divided when a new parish was established in March.

The church was extended and repaired sometime before 1662 and should have been spectacular at that time. The most intense transformation has passed in the last decades of the 19th century. In 1895, a new main altar with three statues - Saint James the Elder, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Ladislav - and three reliefs depicting God the Father and the angels was built on the legacy of the priest. The paintings were painted by Josef Winterhalder Jr. In 1893 two side altars were built dedicated to Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary, and organ was installed on the bark. In 1916, the windows were given a new form - round metal windows - and when the tower was checked, it was found to carry six bells, the largest of which measures an average of 110 centimetres and weighs 745 kilograms.

The 20th century brought many repairs. In 1923 the wall orbiting the church was repaired and the stairs to the tower were built. In 1927, a door to the original crypt with seven steps leading to a space of three to two and a half metres was broken during the reconstruction. In 1940 the church suffered from moisture and a number of repairs were carried out including new floors, wiring and installation of drain pipes. On that occasion, the main crypt was opened - but it was found empty. In 1942, bells were recited during World War II, only two of six left in the village; The biggest broken bell was welded and returned after the war. In the following years (1948-1950) the roof and electrical installation were repaired. In 1957, a wall wall was restored and an anonymous donor gave the church a new confessional. In the 1960s further repairs followed - in 1960 roofs, 1962 organ and 1963 complex reconstruction of the tower. In 1967 the interior was repaired, and in 1978 the last great repair was made with the laying of marble tiles.

The church today represents a long development of the Czech parish building. The rich furnishings of the interior - especially the altar and organ from the 19th and 20th centuries - indicate the care of the local community and changing architectural trends over the centuries.