St. Nicholas and St. Elizabeth Church (Cheb)

On the church square (Kostelní náměstí) in Cheb (Eger) is the Catholic parish church of St. Nicholas - the oldest church in Eger. The church was built at the beginning of the 13th century as a Romanesque basilica. Soon after, however, it burned out and the subsequent repair was already in the Gothic style. The shape of the church, however, was also marked by the baroque and neo-Gothic reconstruction. The last architectural changes in 2008 gave the church its original, high towers, which were destroyed in the bombing raids at the end of World War II.

Eger's most monumental and oldest church, St. Nicholas and St. Elisabeth, was probably built on the model of the Bamberg Cathedral, which is over two hundred years older. The first written mention of it dates back to 1239, when the consecration of one of the altars, the altar of St. Anne, is mentioned. After a fire in 1742, the towers were rebuilt with baroque domes based on a design by Balthasar Neumann, who was born in Eger. On April 20, 1945, Cheb was bombed by Allied troops, and the church towers were damaged. After the war, they only received seven-meter-high provisional helmets. These remained for the next 63 years. It was not until 2008 that the Historical Cheb Foundation managed to repair the war damage: 26-meter-high conical helmets were made, copies of the neo-Gothic helmets from 1869, each with four smaller turrets at the corners. They were hoisted onto the church towers in July 2008.

Impressive church that has received its face again with the rebuilt Balthasar Neumann church towers in 2008.