Kostel svatého Jakuba Většího ve Stříbrné Skalici Church

The Church of Saint James the Greater stands in Stříbrná Skalice, in the place of the vanished village of Rovná. It is a Romanesque structure and thanks to its decoration, it belongs among the rarest Romanesque monuments in Bohemia. Romanesque wall paintings from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have been preserved in it, and on the outer northern wall are stone reliefs with animal motifs.

The origin of the church is only hypothetically connected with Abbot Silvestr from the Benedictine monastery in Sázava, who later became Bishop of Prague. He also contributed to other church buildings in the Central Sázava region. According to the older theory, the church was built around the year eleven fifty, and in the first half of the thirteenth century it was rebuilt in the late Romanesque style. However, a structural and historical survey from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand and one also suggests that it was built all at once in the first decades of the thirteenth century.

Saint James the Greater is the patron of miners. The choice of this dedication therefore testifies to the fact that mining took place in the surrounding countryside. The cult of Saint James was brought to Bohemia by Benedictine monks from neighbouring lands.

From the fourteenth century, Jan ze Střímelic and Ctibor ze Skalice became the church's patrons. Rovná and Skalice were later pledged to Prokop, cousin of King Václav the Fourth. In the fifteenth century, the church is documented as the parish church for Rovná, Roviny, Kožlí, Ráj and Bič. After the Battle of White Mountain, the village together with the Černý Kostelec estate passed to Prince Karel the First of Liechtenstein. During the period of recatholization, the local priests were expelled, and until seventeen fifteen, Benedictine monks from Sázava served here.

The masonry has a striking red colour. It is given by sandstone from the nearby Nučice. It is a single-nave church with an apse and a prismatic tower in the western façade. The church, apse and two thirds of the tower remained without plaster. The arcaded friezes on the apse and the reliefs on the northern wall were inspired by an Irish Benedictine church in Řezno.

In the sub-vault is a late Romanesque tribune. The original one was wooden and a small portal in the northern wall led to it, today bricked up. It was probably connected by a wooden footbridge to the neighbouring manor house, so the church served both the manor owner and the parish. The original tribune probably burned down in a fire at the manor house, as evidenced by a charred beam above the entrance.

In the sixteenth century, the manor house tribune was rebuilt into a gallery. In the year seventeen hundred and eight, a vestibule, sacristy and spiral staircase to the tower were added. The bell was requisitioned in nineteen sixteen.

The paintings in the nave and in the presbytery were created in two periods. The oldest of them date from the time of the completion of the building.