SAINT CATHERINE´S CHURCH in ŠTRAMBERK (TAMOVICE)

Saint Catherine Church stands on the elevated bank of the little Sedlnice River on the way from Štramberk to Nový Jičin. The church itself is a very Gothic building from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries with a rectangular chancel and oblong nave. A retangular stone portal from an exterior structure fits into it in the axis of the church. An added walled corridor with a saddle roof and boarded gable with vitrified brick was latter adjoined to the south part of the nave. The church nave is separated from the chancel by a pointed victory arch with a stone lining. In the axis of the chancel there is an original, broken Gothic window with a stone tracery. On the evangelical side a rectangular Gothic portal enters into a narrow flat-ceiling sacristy, in which a small peak window with a stone lining is still intact. Above the sacristy a timbered oratorium is made open to the chancel by two arched arcades.

The little church built in the village of Tamovice is recalled in the lands and duties register of the year 1558 when it had only four residents – three peasants and one gardener. By the end of the sixteenth century the village was destroyed and instead of it the nobility had a courtyard built belonging to Štramberk. It seems the church was given for use by the neighbouring village Závíšic The inhabitants then began to enhance St. Catherine´s Church. In the year 1671 the miller and reeve,. Pavel Melc, acquired a new altar with gold carvings and a picture of Saint Catherine. It has been nicely preserved since that time in the pulpit which was made. The organ housing is dated with the year 1663. The new Baroque interior is illuminated by enhanced windows, one in the nave and the other in the chancel, which is supported by an engraved sign in a circular window pane, discovered during recent reconstruction: „1682 Waclaw Klempyrz made this window.“ In the year 1895, the old Baroque altar was changed for a pseudo-Gothic one with a statue of Saint Catherine. In the year 1935, Závíšic citizens built a new community church, and the little church of Saint Catherine fell into disrepair and was left to ruin. It waited for renewal until the years 1949 to 1951 when it was taken under the care of national heritage and local parishioners.

In the year 2009, wood samples from various locations in the church were examined. It was discovered that the truss above the chancel and part of the nave were built during the years 1440 to 1441 and it represents the oldest standing trussed structure in the Moravian-Silesian Region. They built a tower above the nave in the year 1557 and the wooden three-sided organ and choir area with carved balustrade is dated from the years 1609 to 1610. It is not without interest that at the same time and new organ and choir area was built even in the former parish church of Štramberk.

Another essential total renewal of the church and the wooden fencing of the churchyard was carried out in the years 2011 – 2012. All the damaged and rotten wooden parts were exchanged. The entire construction got a new roof covering. The lime plaster was renewed on the exterior and interior walls. A protective archeological survey in parts of the nave and sacristy was carried out with the repairs. It was discovered that the church is standing in the location of an older medieval burial site. It was buried inside the church and sacristy, in several layers above each other, from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century.