Plánice - church of st. Blaze
The current baroque form of the church of St. Blažeje in Plánica was founded under the leadership of the builder Johan Trajler in 1755, when Antonín Jakub Kolštrajtera was the parish priest and Jan Fikar was the primate. Some believe that the prominent builder of the time, Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, who built the nearby Nice church in the first half of the 18th century, also participated in it. However, his participation in the construction is not confirmed.
The Baroque church was built on the site of the original Gothic (perhaps also Romanesque) building. Unfortunately, we don't know anything about her appearance.
The church has one nave, is rectangular and has a tower in the west facade with a mansard window. The square presbytery is closed by an apse with a sacristy. The oratory is upstairs. Inside, the ship is fourteen meters long and ten meters wide without ten centimeters. The semicircular triumphal arch is lined with a pair of pilasters.
The main altar is early Baroque from the 17th century and supposedly comes from the church in Přestice. The newer altar of St. Blaze is from 1784. On the left side is the altar of St. John of Nepomuck and on the right we find the altar of St. Our Lady of Nice.
In the baroque church of St. Blažeje is a peculiarity that we can still meet in Bohemia in the church in Ždírc near Dvor Králové nad Labem. The uniqueness lies in the fact that the image of the main altar changes several times a year.
In the season of Advent, which begins four weeks before the feast of the birth of Christ, there is an image of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. At Christmas we look at the nativity scene. The forty-day Lent, which lasts from Ash Wednesday to Easter, is reminiscent of the image of Christ on the cross. The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes commemorates the Marian month of May, and in June there is a statue of the Lord Jesus on the main altar. All Souls' Day is a holiday celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter in commemoration of the sending of the Holy Spirit and the apostles.
During the Easter period, which lasts fifty days after Easter, the patron saint of the church, Saint Blaise, bishop, martyr, who died in 316 in Armenia, appears in the interim.
In 1899, a pit with a large number of bones was found near the church during paving, which were transported to the cemetery on seventeen wagons.
Source: Martin Kříž
