Klementinum

When the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand I invited the Jesuits to Prague in 1556 to boost the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Bohemia, they selected one of the city’s choicest pieces of real estate and in 1587 set to work on the Church of the Holy Saviour (kostel Nejsvětějšího Spasitele), Prague’s flagship of the Counter-Reformation. The western façade faces Charles Bridge, its sooty stone saints glaring down at the traffic jam of trams and tourists on Křížovnické náměstí. After gradually buying up most of the adjacent neighbourhood, the Jesuits started building their college, the Klementinum, in 1653. By the time of its completion a century later it was the largest building in the city after Prague Castle. When the Jesuits fell out with the pope in 1773, it became part of Charles University. The Klementinum today is a vast complex of beautiful baroque and rococo halls, now occupied by the Czech National Library. Most of the buildings are closed to the public, but you can take a 50-minute guided tour of the baroque Library Hall & Astronomical Tower and the Chapel of Mirrors. The chapel dates from the 1720s and is an ornate confection of gilded stucco, marbled columns, fancy frescoes and ceiling mirrors –think baroque on steroids. Concerts of classical music are held here daily (tickets are available at most ticket agencies). There are two other interesting churches in the Klementinum. The Church of St Clement, lavishly redecorated in the baroque style from 1711 to 1715 to plans by Kilian Dientzenhofer, is now a Greek Catholic chapel. Conservatively dressed visitors are welcome to attend the services. And then there’s the elliptical, Italian Chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Vlašská kaple Nanebevzetí Panny Marie), built in 1600 for the Italian artisans who worked on the Klementinum (it’s still technically the property of the Italian government).