About the church with a leaning tower

The Roman Catholic Archdeacon’s Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the dominant feature of Ústí nad Labem. It was built around 1318 by German colonists. In 1538 the church burned down in a fire in the town. Today’s appearance dates back to the end of the 19th century. It was rebuilt in the Neo-Gothic style by the Viennese architect A. Weber according to the designs of Josef Mocker. It was severely damaged during the bombing of the city in 1945 and since then its front tower has been significantly deflected.

The tower of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary deviates from the vertical by more than two metres in its sixty metres of height. It is the most sloping tower in the Czech Republic and far beyond the borders of the neighbouring countries. It came to its handicap during the Second World War, after being hit by an aerial bomb it tilted and cracked. At the time, it looked like it was about to fall. Later, however, the Ústíans shored it up with a wooden structure, and eventually it was intricately secured with the help of concrete grouting in the foundation and a reinforced concrete shell inside the tower.

During the bombing, the original staircase extension, which was used to climb the tower, fell down and was not restored during the reconstruction. Today it is only possible to reach the tower by a circuitous route through the attic of the nave. The reconstruction of the tower was designed in 1899 by the famous architect Josef Mocker, the author of the reconstruction of Karlštejn. After the bombardment, the famous engineer Bedřich Hacar, who designed the completion of the damaged monastery in Prague Emmaus, provided the structural support.