Markvartice, St. Martin's Church, view of the nave and ceiling beams, 1965

The church has been reconstructed with a new copper roof, tower, and flèche. The nave's original roof, truss, and vault collapsed in 1984. An annex on the left side of the nave has been mostly demolished. The façade has been repaired, and there are new windows and shutters on the tower. Temporary doors are closed. Inside, new, unpainted plaster is visible (scaffolding remains). Drainage is being installed around the church. The surrounding cemetery has been cleared, nearly half of the perimete.. Read more »r wall has been repaired, and the Stations of the Cross chapels on the wall are being restored. The access stairway to the church and the main gate have been repaired. After 1948, the church was deliberately neglected. By the mid-1960s, a damaged roof allowed water to damage the trusses. In 1965, parts of the Baroque ceiling stucco detached, followed by the collapse of the entire vault. Part of the roof collapsed in 1974, and in 1984, the entire roof structure fell into the nave. Residents took the fallen timbers for firewood, and the ruins were closed off. Eventually, the last remaining vault over the presbytery collapsed, along with the triumphal arch and the Thun coat of arms. Previously, valuable furnishings had been removed on orders from the communist authorities and transported to Slovakia. This included a large altarpiece depicting St. Martin, a medallion painting of the Virgin Mary above it, two side Baroque altars with a statue of St. John Nepomuk, a painting of Christ's relatives, and 24 paintings of saints and scenes from their lives. Four statues of the evangelists were saved and are now in the church in Růžová. The organ was also taken to Slovakia, and its carved Baroque case reportedly ended up in a sawmill. A Gothic wooden crucifix and a double-sided hanging sculpture of the Virgin Mary were also lost. Further destruction...