This Roman Catholic wooden church sits on a small hill at the edge of the village of Slavoňov in the East Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. The church was built in 1553 on the site of a much older structure. It was originally founded by Utraquists (a moderate branch of the Hussite movement) and dedicated to Saint Martin, but the church became Roman Catholic in 1683.
The large bell tower within the church yard dates from the same era as the church, probably built in 1555. The lower half of the tower is made of brick and its height suggests it was also intended to have a defensive military function in the event of the village coming under attack. Three bells cast in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries hang in the tower.
The beams of the church are made of oak, spruce and fir logs. The joints between the logs were filled in with mortar and then the exterior of the building was covered in whitewash. The interior walls and ceiling are painted with murals of plants and flowers which date from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The murals were restored twice in the twentieth century.
Getting to Slavoňov is possible by public transport since there are several buses daily from the nearby town of Nové Město nad Metují which has train and bus links to most major cities across the country. The village is just 4 kilometres east of Nové Město nad Metují so it is also possible to walk there along a forest trail. The church is open for religious services four times per week, and at other times the door into the front entrance room is left open where it is possible to get an obstructed view of the church interior.
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