Kostel svatého Mikuláše (Petrovice) Church

The Church of Saint Nicholas in Petrovice stands on the Czech-German border in the Ústí nad Labem district. The current building dates from 1793 and has been protected as a cultural monument since 1963.

However, a church had stood here much earlier. The oldest one stood in the middle of the churchyard, probably already in the second half of the 14th century, and its patrons were the lords from Vartenberka. On August 8th, 1495, the Meissen bishop Johann of Salhausen reconsecrated it after repairs. The last Catholic priest here was Peter Hübner, who served from 1564 to 1570. His successor Martin Prätorius did take an oath to the Catholic dean in Ústí, but in 1578 he converted to Protestantism.

In 1636, during the Thirty Years' War, Swedish soldiers marched through the village toward Pirna. During plundering, the church caught fire and was not rebuilt for twenty years.

A new church, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, was built in 1793. The tower was only added over a hundred years later, in 1904. In late August 1813, a series of events began right here in Petrovice, known as the Battle of Chlumec. The armies of Austria, Prussia and Russia defeated the forces of Emperor Napoleon. Thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded. The church then served as both a hospital and a storage facility and was considerably damaged.

However, it did not lose its roof until 1988. Following improper construction work, it collapsed along with the roof timbers and ceiling. Instead of being repaired, the building was only secured with a concrete ring beam and the windows of the nave were bricked up. The presbytery, where a remnant of the main altar remained, was covered by a low temporary roof, now without the original tabernacle canopy. A small museum of local history was created in the sacristy.

For almost three decades, the church thus stood without most of its roof. The municipality, which owns it, obtained a grant from European funds in 2015. The representatives decided on a partially glazed roof. They were inspired by the renovated Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Neratov in the Eagle Mountains. The new roof was created in autumn 2015. The windows of the nave remained bricked up, so daylight now enters the interior precisely through the roof.