Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Čazma

The parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene stands on the main square of Čazma, Trg Čazmanskog kaptola, and is regarded as the oldest sacred monument in Bjelovar-Bilogora County. Its story is tied to the founding of the Čazma chapter. In 1232 Bishop Stjepan II of Zagreb established a collegiate chapter of twelve canons in Čazma and made the town a secondary seat of the Zagreb diocese, and the original Romanesque church was completed in the same year. A Dominican monastery once stood beside it.

The church was built as a three-aisled, cross-shaped building with two bell towers; the original facade had a prominent portal and a rose window. Over the following centuries it was damaged repeatedly, especially during the Ottoman wars; in 1544 Čazma was sacked by Ulama Bey. The 19th-century historian Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski recorded a tombstone and the remains of Duke Koloman, who fought the Mongols in 1241, in the church; the tombstone has since been lost.

According to the county tourist board, a fire between 1715 and 1720 destroyed the interior, which was then refitted in the Baroque style. The parish priest Ivan Jambreković played a leading part in the 18th-century renovation. Nothing of the Romanesque interior survives; what visitors see today is 17th- and 18th-century Baroque furnishing. The main altar is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and the side altars include those of the Holy Spirit, the Three Kings, St. Stephen, St. Roch, the Holy Cross and the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, together with a Baroque pulpit.

The most valuable single piece is the organ, built in 1767 by Johann Hencke of Vienna in the Rococo style, with two manuals and a pedal. Its case has been restored to its original appearance.

Research and restoration started around 1995 and are still going on. Archaeological excavations in 2003 and 2005 uncovered foundations of earlier building phases and 136 graves with early modern finds such as medals, crosses and rosaries. Since 2015 the Croatian Conservation Institute has been restoring the wooden furnishings, including the altarpieces of the altars of St. John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Adoration of the Kings. The long-term plan is to present the exterior in its Romanesque form and the interior in its Baroque form.