Painted Churches Of Texas

[FilioScotia]

Has anyone here ever seen the famous Painted Churches over in the Schulenburg and LaGrange area? For those who haven't seen them, they're Catholic churches built in the 19th and early 20th centuries by German and Czech immigrants who settled in that part of the state.

Most were built in small out-of-the-way farming communities, which had large populations a century ago, but today, sadly, most of them are nearly ghost towns. The churches are still there though, very well maintained and beautiful beyond belief in their old world splendor. Here's a link to a website with a photo tour of some of them.

http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTo...hurchesTour.htm

They're just an hour and a half west of Houston along I-10, and well worth a day trip to see them.

Edited March 7, 2007 by FilioScotia

[MidtownCoog]

I've been to the one in Praha. Very neat.

Even better if you take the long way on the CRs.

[H-Town Man]

I lived out there for awhile, and became pretty well acquainted with them. The best in my opinion is the one in High Hill, which was once a bigger town than neighboring Schulenburg, until the residents decided they didn't want a rail line passing through their town. Praha is a solid second, and looks monumental when approached from the south (agreed with Coog on the beautiful roads out there). Dubina's church is smaller, but has a very cool buried-in-the-woods feel. Have not been to the one in Serbin.

A show was done on these churches by PBS. I think they replay it every once in awhile.

If you drive out there, you should get on U.S. 90 around Columbus and take it instead of I-10. Then imagine when this was the only highway between Houston and San Antonio. What an incredible adventure that must have been.

[FilioScotia]

Has anyone here ever seen the famous Painted Churches over in the Schulenburg and LaGrange area?

For those who've never seen them, or didn't know about them, they're Catholic churches built in the 19th and early 20th centuries by German and Czech immigrants who settled in that part of the state. They hired professional painters and sculptors to decorate them in the style of the churches they left behind in Eastern Europe.

Most were built in small out-of-the-way farming communities, which had fairly large populations a century ago, but sadly, most of them are nearly ghost towns today.

The churches are still there though, very well maintained and breath-takingly beautiful in their old world splendor. Here's a link to a website with a photo tour of some of them.

http://www.staustin.org/PaintedChurches/

They're just an hour and a half west of Houston along I-10, and well worth a day trip to see them.

Edited August 26, 2006 by FilioScotia

[joe v]

Here is a painted church near Navasota

http://www.smsj.org/index.php

[Gilder]

Painted Churches Tour

http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTo...hurchesTour.htm

[texianjoe]

I love that tour. I found it really intresting when I read a marker at the one in Praha that they lost almost all it's adult male population during WWII.

joe

[FilioScotia]

Painted Churches Tour -- Here's another link

It was posted on the website of KLRU TV, the UT Austin TV station that did a well received documentary on the Painted Churches about six years ago.

http://www.klru.org/paintedchurches/churches.html

Edited December 29, 2006 by FilioScotia

[2fatcats]

anyone here ever seen the famous Painted Churches over in the Schulenburg and LaGrange area? For those who haven't seen them, they're Catholic churches built in the 19th and early 20th centuries by German and Czech immigrants who settled in that part of the state. <<FilioScotia'

I've visited a few of them and have traveled a lot in the Fayette County area where there are other interesting churches as well. If you ever get to Fayetteville, check out the cemetery there..it has a lot of Czech and German graves and they had the custom of putting a photo of the deceased on the tombstone so you could actually see what the person looked like rather than imagining. I thought that was pretty cool.

[ZeroTX]

I think this would be one, it is St. Mary's in Plantersville, TX (a few miles north of the Renaissance Festival grounds):

History of this beautiful church: http://www.smsj.org/mt/smsj/father_eds_desk/000007.php

Pictures (by me, sorry, they are not great):

All photos by me, ZeroTX Please don't hot-link or use outside of this forum.

-Michael

[H-Town Man]

That is beautiful... although I think that for official Painted Church status, it has to be a Czech community. Maybe not though.

There's another really nice one, St. Stanislaus, in Anderson, about twenty miles north of Plantersville.

[Resa00]

I have more pictures from The Church of the Nativity of Mary aka St. Mary in Plantersville, Tx. Sadly I've got no place to host the images for me, so if you'd like to see more pictures (Inculding the last supper painted carving in the main alter) give me a shout on a private message and I'll send them your way.

[Dub]

My February motorcycle group run did the Painted Church's Tour. While the church's are very nice (the padre in Praha will wander in and give a history and answer questions) the old Piano Wire bridge between High Hill and Dubina was also a highlite of the trip. That and the coconut cream pie at Franks in Schulenburg!!!!

Edited April 9, 2008 by Dub

[Vertigo58]

Now that really looks like the bridge Billy Joe McCallister jumed off of! (avatar on left)

over in Choctaw Ridge? Ja ja!

PS, the church steeple is very unique, love it.

[H-Town Man]

Now that really looks like the bridge Billy Joe McCallister jumed off of! (avatar on left)

over in Choctaw Ridge? Ja ja!

PS, the church steeple is very unique, love it.

It's only about a 15 ft drop from that one, so I think Billy Joe's was higher.

[readam]

My parents grew up in Dubina and I have visited that church many, many, many times. They even had an elementary school on that plot of land until the 1960s. The cemetery and Piano Bridge are really a neat side trip while visiting the church. The Sts. Cyril and Methodius church has a great church picnic in the Summer. Many of these out of the way churches and small towns have church festivals every weekend in the Summer. Much polka music and barbecue and sausage is available. Down the Farm to Market road (1383) between US90 and the LaGrange to Schulenburg HWY is another painted church at Ammansvile. There is also a nice church on the LaGrange HWY at Hostyn.

[Vertigo58]

My February motorcycle group run did the Painted Church's Tour. While the church's are very nice (the padre in Praha will wander in and give a history and answer questions) the old Piano Wire bridge between High Hill and Dubina was also a highlite of the trip. That and the coconut cream pie at Franks in Schulenburg!!!!

This are fantastic pictures, and it's great that you got the motorcyclist's passing in front.

These little churches would be a perfect setting for a movie. Perfect.

[acamarillo]

this may be off-topic, but this might be the most likely place to get an answer.

when i was a teenager in the 70s, my family went to check out a church my mom had seen in a newspaper. I think it was somewhere towards LaGrange, painted church country, but the thing was that this church had built something like seven grottoes, reproducing famous shrines of the world. There was Lourdes, Fatima, Tepeyac (Guadalupe), and several others I can't remember.

Has anyone ever seen or even heard of this? I've tried to research this on the net to no avail, and my mom no longer remembers what town this was in.

Thanks.