In Havlíčkův Brod, repairs to St. Catherine's Church are ongoing, and volunteers are helping

Havlíčkův Brod – The repairs of the Church of St. Catherine in Havlíčkův Brod continue this year with another stage. Carpenters have built a new wooden truss above the main nave of the church. Volunteers have taken advantage of the erected scaffolding, and in agreement with heritage conservationists, since this morning they have been chipping away at the external cement plaster. The renovation is organized by the Epigram association, which is helping the parish with the restoration of the monument. It also has a public fundraising campaign.

The truss is not yet finished; the scaffolding will remain at the church for about three more weeks. Today, 12 volunteers were chipping the façade, also using jackhammers. The secretary of the association, Vít Vodrážka, was also working on the scaffolding. "The façade is modern, unattractive, and mainly has a lot of cement, which retains a lot of moisture in the masonry," he told ČTK.

The church, located behind the bridge at Sázava, has been deteriorating since the 1950s. The Roman Catholic parish began its repairs in 2018. The city, the Ministry of Culture, and the region are contributing to the costs. So far, the total expenses are around 5.5 million crowns, said Deacon Oldřich Kučera to ČTK. This year's work on the truss will cost about 1.5 million. The parish has secured 700,000 crowns for this, and will pay the remaining part itself with the help of the association.

Volunteers' work on the church is expected to continue until Saturday. After chipping away the façade, the masonry will need to be cleaned; possibly, the dismantling of the cement flooring in the church could also begin. According to a probe, there are two layers of bricks beneath it and the original fired pavement, which could be restored. "We'll see once we uncover it," noted Vodrážka.

The parish will continue the repairs of the church depending on how much funding it can raise. According to the deacon, next year the tower of the church with the clock is expected to be addressed. The restoration of the stained glass windows, which are protected by safety glass from the outside, is also supposed to be completed.

In the public fundraising campaign, hundreds of thousands of crowns have been raised since the end of 2017. Currently, there are over 350,000 crowns in the transparent account. From these contributions, the association will cover part of the costs for the restoration of the windows, truss, the repair of the bell, and the first phase of the new electrical installation this year and at the beginning of next year. Even so, there is still a lot of work left to complete the church's repairs. The association would welcome if the restored church could serve for liturgies as well as for exhibitions and concerts. "More or less, we would like to return to the usage that was present before the repairs started," said Vodrážka.

The Church of St. Catherine has Gothic foundations and has been preserved in a Baroque form with an external pseudo-Romanesque modification. It is reportedly from the 13th century. It was presumably founded as a mining church, near the only bridge over the Sázava at that time. Along with the church, a hospital stood outside the city walls. Over the centuries, the church has been damaged multiple times. Details can be found on the parish website.