Kostel svatého Mikuláše (Svatý Mikuláš, okres Kutná Hora) Church

St. Nicholas Church in St. Nicholas (Kutna Hora district) is a Gothic temple from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Today it represents an architectural hybrid of the original building and neogotic extension. The monument is particularly important by its presbytery, which is among the oldest buildings in the region.

The history of the church is closely linked to the formation of the village. In the 10th century there was a prince's forest with the village of Bor. The area was purchased in 1278 by the farmer's abbot Mikuláš I., which brought the area under the authority of the Sedlecký monastery. Around 1307, the monastery had this place built a temple to honor the Bishop of St. Nicholas. The first written mention of the parish church dates back to 1352, when the building was part of the Czechoslovak Dean.

The building is oriented and located in the middle of the village. The entrance from the west side leads through a rectangular two-wing cassette door in a wooden frame to a square hall with a valb tin roof. The facade has smooth, undecorated plaster and the windows are finished with a broken arch. Only a square presbytery of 5,5 × 5 metres was left of the original Gothic building. It is ended with a needle cut and its arches carry simple wedge ribs with a circular target clamp in the middle. The east wall of the presbytery contains a narrow broken window with a stone lining and three recesses.

The original ship was destroyed in 1790. The current square neo-Gothic ship was built in 1872. It is a glass and covered tent roof with bags of the type of bobcat, which at the highest point ends with a lid with a lantern. The ship connects with a gothic presbytery through a sharp victory arch. The historical sources, namely the map of the New Devine estate of 1734, suggest that a chorus tower may have stood above the presbytery in the past, but this cannot be demonstrated with certainty.

Church ownership has changed over the centuries. Since the foundation it belonged to the seventh monastery, later (from 1655) it went to the nodovor estate Count Bernard František of the Tower. The one in 1680 had the object repaired thoroughly. Dramatic changes brought about by the Josephine reforms, which resulted in the church being abolished in 1786. The equipment was sold at auction and the ship was removed in 1790. At the request of the residents, only the presbytery who served as a morgue and occasional chapel was preserved.

The church went through several times of crisis. At the beginning of the 15th century there was a priest Jiří z Boru, who performed against Jan Hus. After Hussite wars, the rectory disappeared. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Utraquist priests from the rectory of Záborí nad Labem served here. In 1639 the church and the whole village were burned down by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War. In 1872 the temple was restored and supplemented with an altar donated by Count Chotko. Further renovations took place in 1977 and 2015.

Since 1966, St. Nicholas Church has been listed in the Central List of Real Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic. There are currently no regular services. The construction remains a unique testament to the medieval colonization and influence of the peasant monastery in the region.

The combination of early Gothic and neo-Gothic makes it an interesting target for people interested in architecture. Visiting this quiet temple allows you to observe the continuity of history in the heart of the village Svatý Mikuláš.