History

The Roman Catholic St. Martin's Church belongs among the oldest church buildings in this town and its region.

The first historical note is dated to 1131 and is linked to the name of a bishop Jindřich Zdík, who probably had a seat on his manor in Blansko. Not far from here (in today's village St. Catherina) there had already been a little church which was too little for the densely populated surroundings.

The beginning od the building process of St. Martin's Church is dated to years 1138 to 1140, it was hallowed probably in 1150. Another written note appeared in years 1267 - 1277, in which the bishop Bruno of Šaumburg called Blansko the Bishop's Castle. At the beginning of the 14th century Blansko became a seat of a large dominion. In the same century Blansko was assaulted by wild Tatars who desolated and burned the church out. During the Husit Wars Blansko was devastated and the close castle Blanzek war ruined too.

In 1436 the town came into a possession of the House of Miličín and the bishop Pavel of Miličín reconstructed the church. A seat of Olomouc bishops was established in Blansko.

In the l6th century the church became a religious centre of Blansko and the whole dominion.

From 1638 a Catholic priest settled in Blansko.

The Thirty Years War had a bad influence on both the town and the condition of the church. A new prime had not begun until 1645.

There were not preserved any evident signs of a middle aged church to the present. The process of building started to develope in the 17th century. A stone Baroque tower (about 1672) was built.

It has preserved till the present time as well as choir supported by prism pillars, with the cross vault underneath.

The church was repaired and enlarged from the expenses borne by a contess Zuzana Gellhorn and the Lords of Orlík. A charnel-house and a wall around a cemetery were built, various reconstructions of the interior, chancel and a part of the nave were realized. The church gained the today's face.

In the 19th century there were realized small adaptations. From that time the pews and the Cross Path have preserved.

Changes and adaptations realized in the 20th century: A new bell was bought in 1907, after the First World Was there were realized adaptations of the church exteriors and two new bells were purchased (the two previous bells were confiscated for war purposes). In 1930 the interior of the church was reconstructed, in 1942 a new main altar and two new bells were purchaced.

In 1905 Blansko was promoted to a town.

In 1990 there was realized a liturgic adaptation of the chancel and a new altar turned face to people.

The crypt of the house of Rožmitál and Gellhorn, mentioned in the historical resources, was walled-up during the reign of Joseph II. Although the visitors cannot find this sight today, they will be able to see a little tablet with a name of Karolina Meineke (1768 - 1814), a wife of the English king William IV. Her romantic life story finished at the former cemetery near the church.

Recently, the staff of the Institution of The Care of Historical Monuments discovered interesting witnesses of the past: a rest of a Gothic portal, a little Roman window with a fragment of a sculpture of a man with a sword situated in the southern part of the outer wall and a unique note on the bell which does not work, dated to the 15th or 16th century.

St. Martin's church in Blansko speaks a language of centuries and looks forward to the third millenium.