Church of St. Josefa Žulová

Frýdberk Castle, which was also the original name of the village Žulová, stood on this promontory at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, for the first time it is mentioned in documents from the first quarter of the 14th century. What exactly this original castle looked like is not well documented, but it was probably an oval courtyard surrounded by a wall, a free-standing bergfrit, which is the main tower of the castle, and a palace building. The castle was not very important and could not defend itself too much in wars, so in 1639 it was conquered and largely destroyed by Swedish and Polish troops. In 1703 it was rebuilt into a brewery and subsequently in 1805 the land and buildings were dedicated to the construction of the church, as Žulová was already promoted to a town in 1793, but it lacked the place of spiritual administration.

Church of St. Josefa was built in 1809-1810. The original buildings used a Gothic tower and a former brewer's house outside the church, which was rebuilt into a rectory. It was the bergfrit that was used very interestingly as the church tower. This cylindrical building has a diameter of 11 meters in the lower part, walls up to 4 meters thick and its preserved part reaches a height of 37 meters. Above it, a narrower bell tower with a late Baroque onion tower was built. The ground floor of the tower was pierced by a brick passage during the reconstruction, as the bergfrit never had an entrance by the ground. On the north side is the nave of the church in the Classicist style, but the interior decoration corresponds more to the late Baroque. The interior is decorated, among other things, with several valuable wooden statues, a neoclassical altar from 1875 and a painting depicting St. Joseph with baby Jesus. An interesting clockwork and two original bells have been preserved in the church tower. Since its foundation, there has been a cemetery around the church, delimited by the original castle walls.

Author: Martina Limbergová