Kostel svatého Martina (Borová Lada) Church

The Church of Saint Martin stood in Nový Svět, today part of the Borová Lada municipality in the Prachaticko region. It was a parish church and its cemetery served people from neighboring settlements such as Černá Lada, Hrabětické Lady, Paseky, Šindlov, Zahrádky or Zelená Hora. Today the church no longer stands. It was demolished in nineteen seventy-six.

Spiritual administration was established here in seventeen eighty-eight. At that time, a curacy was set up by a wooden chapel of the Holy Spirit from the previous year. In the same year, the registers of baptisms and marriages began, with the registers of deaths starting a year later. In eighteen fifty-five, the curacy became a parish. Around the nineteen fifties, the parish was moved to Nová Huť.

The church was built in seventeen ninety-six and seventeen ninety-seven in place of the wooden chapel, during the time of reforms under Emperor Joseph the Second. It was paid for by the Religious Fund. The project was prepared by Josef Binder, a builder from Vimperk, and the construction was carried out by Johann Hainzer, a master mason from the Bavarian Röhrnbach. At the beginning of the twentieth century the church was renovated.

It was a simple single-nave building with a presbytery, that is a chancel, and a low wooden tower on the western facade. The roof and tower were covered with shingles. The walls were undecorated, only the facade was divided by a pair of pilasters. Inside there were flat reed ceilings and in the western part of the nave stood a choir loft. The furnishings were also modest. The main altar was originally formed by a wall painting of Saint Martin by Ignác Gerzicka, organist from Malý Zdiков. Only in eighteen fifty-seven was it replaced by an altar with a painting of Saint Martin by F. Tomáš from Jindřichův Hradec. The organ was built in eighteen ten.

After nineteen forty-eight, inhabitants moved away from the area and the church ceased to serve for worship. In nineteen sixty-three it was declared a cultural monument. From nineteen sixty-six, district offices and conservators attempted its restoration and considered that it could serve as a repository for the South Bohemian Museum. However, construction companies delayed the repairs, so the district department of education and culture turned to the prosecutor's office. Nevertheless, the church could not be even secured. Vandals damaged it and its furnishings were stolen. Further attempts at rescue between nineteen seventy-one and nineteen seventy-four also failed.

Eventually the church was taken over by the local people's committee of Borová Lada. They requested the removal of monument protection and permission for demolition. The church was already in a state of disrepair and repair seemed too expensive. In the second half of nineteen seventy-six it was therefore demolished together with the cemetery.