Trnávka is a small municipality in the Polabí region, in the middle of the way between Kolín and Přelouč. There are not many records about Trnávka, we just know that the first record comes from the year 1333. At an altitude of 204 metres there live 208 inhabitants. If you would like to make a trip around the surroundings, you can visit a nearby Kladruby nad Labem with a famous stud. There is also a Renaissance castle from the 16th century, later it was rebuilt in a Baroque style. In Řečany nad Labem you will find St. Mary Magdalene’s Romanesque church with a Romanesque baptismal font.
In Trnávka and its surroundings the secret Protestants were surviving (in a nearby Chvaletice they gathered in a fortress cellar in Telčice) and in 1782 they joined the Augsburg confession. At the beginning they gathered in a barn for worship but already in May 1783 a wooden house of prayer was built. Maybe it was the first one in the Czech Lands. It did not last long. New one, this time made of stone, was built ten year later. The first worship was held here in May 1797. When the toleration restrictions were not valid anymore, the inhabitants of Trnávka wanted to improve the house of prayer but it appeared that it was not possible. So they built the third one, it was a stone Neo-Renaissance church with a tower. It was solemnly opened on the 22nd of May 1884. Since that time, after various repairs it has been serving up to the present day.
The congregation uses a nice ground floor rectory built in 1925. Besides the room for worship which serves as a winter house of prayer we can find here recently repaired rooms which serve the needs of the live congregation. There is also a flat for a preacher at the rectory.
In connection with the congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) in Trnávka, we must mention a nearby church in Chvaletice. In the village – the first written record of which dates back to the year 1393 – the secret Protestants also used to gather and already in 1782 they formed a congregation, the second oldest Reformed congregation in Bohemia. The first preacher Josef Jesenius came from Hungary. Already in 1783 there was a toleration house of prayer. A cemetery was founded around it and even a rectory was there. On the place of the original house of prayer a nice one nave Neo-Classicist church with a tower was built according to M. Blecha’s design between the years 1880–1882.
The 1950s negatively affected the life of Chvaletice. Manganese and pyrite mine completely separated the upper and lower part of the village. The nice Protestant church with a few houses remained isolated on the hill. In 1974 a construction of the electric power plant in Chvaletice changed the whole countryside, too. To this electric power plant coal was transported on the Elbe from the north Bohemia.
The congregation in Chvaletice does not have its preacher. Recently, the church was however repaired and hopefully better future can be expected.