Religious, Spiritual sights in Prague
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Church Of Our Lady Victorious
When a miracle-working 'Bambino di Praga' statue appears in classic Czech novel I served the King of England, it sounds purely fictional. Yet this church really does contain a 400-year-old, wax 'Baby Jesus of Prague', said to have protected the city for centuries. The tradition of dressing the 47cm-tall figure from a wardrobe of 70 costumes continues today, with nuns changing his robes according to a religious calendar.
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Bethlehem Chapel
The Bethlehem Chapel is one of Prague’s most important churches, being the true birthplace of the Hussite cause. In 1391, Reformist Praguers won permission to build a church where services could be held in Czech instead of Latin, and proceeded to construct the biggest chapel Bohemia had ever seen, able to hold 3000 worshippers. Architecturally it was a radical departure, with a simple square hall focused on the pulpit rather than the altar. Jan Hus preached here from 1402 to 1412, marking the emergence of the Reform movement from the sanctuary of the Karolinum (where he was rector). In the 18th century the chapel was torn down. Remnants were discovered around 1920, and fr…
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Břevnov Monastery
Břevnov Monastery is the Czech Republic’s oldest Benedictine monastery, founded in 993 by Boleslav II and Bishop Vojtěch Slavníkovec (later to be canonised as St Adalbert). The two men, from powerful and opposing families intent on dominating Bohemia, met at Vojtěška spring, each having had a dream that this was the place where they should found a monastery. Its name comes from břevno (beam), after the beam laid across the spring where they met. The present baroque monastery building and the nearby Basilica of St Margaret (Bazilika sv Markéty) were completed in 1720 by Kristof Dientzenhofer. During the communist era the monastery housed a secret-police archive; Ja…
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Convent of St Agnes
In the northeastern corner of Staré Město is the former Convent of St Agnes, Prague’s oldest surviving Gothic building. The 1st-floor rooms hold the National Gallery’s permanent collection of medieval art (1200–1550) from Bohemia and Central Europe. In 1234 the Franciscan Order of the Poor Clares was founded by Přemysl king Wenceslas I, who made his sister Anežka (Agnes) its first abbess. Agnes was beatified in the 19th century and, with hardly accidental timing, Pope John Paul II canonised her as St Agnes of Bohemia just weeks before the revolutionary events of November 1989. In the 16th century the buildings were handed over to the Dominicans, and after Joseph II dissol…
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Church of St James
The great Gothic mass of the Church of St James began in the 14th century as a Minorite monastery church, and was later given a beautiful baroque face-lift in the early 18th century. Pride of place inside goes to the over-the-top tomb of Count Jan Vratislav of Mitrovice, an 18th-century lord chancellor of Bohemia, found in the northern aisle. In the midst of the gilt and stucco is a grisly memento: on the inside of the western wall (look up to the right as you enter) hangs a shrivelled human arm. Legend claims that when a thief tried to steal the jewels from the statue of the Virgin around the year 1400, the Virgin grabbed his wrist in such an iron grip that his arm had t…
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Old-New Synagogue
Completed around 1270, the Old-New Synagogue is Europe’s oldest working synagogue and one of Prague’s earliest Gothic buildings. You step down into it because it predates the raising of Staré Město’s street level in medieval times to guard against floods. Men must cover their heads (a hat or bandanna will do; paper yarmulkes are handed out at the entrance). Around the central chamber are an entry hall, a winter prayer hall and the room from which women watch the men-only services. The interior, with a pulpit surrounded by a 15th-century wrought-iron grill, looks much as it would have 500 years ago. The 17th-century scriptures on the walls were recovered from beneath a lat…
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Basilica of St George
The striking, brick-red, early-baroque façade that dominates the square conceals the Czech Republic’s best-preserved Romanesque church, established in the 10th century by Vratislav I (the father of St Wenceslas). What you see today is mostly the result of restorations made between 1887 and 1908. The austerity of the Romanesque nave is relieved by a baroque double staircase leading to the apse, where fragments of 12th-century frescoes survive. In front of the stairs lie the tombs of Prince Boleslav II (d 997; on the left) and Prince Vratislav I (d 921), the church’s founder. The arch beneath the stairs allows a glimpse of the 12th-century crypt; Přemysl kings are buried he…
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Church of St Giles
With stocky Romanesque columns, tall Gothic windows, and an exuberant baroque interior, the Church of St Giles – founded in 1371 – is a good place to ponder the architectural development of Prague’s religious buildings. The proto-Hussite reformer Jan Milíč of Kroměříž preached here before the Bethlehem Chapel was built. The Dominicans gained possession during the Counter-Reformation, built a cloister next door and ‘baroquefied’ it in the 1730s. Václav Reiner, the Czech painter who created the ceiling frescoes, is buried here.
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Rotunda of St Martin
Vratislav II’s little chapel, the 11th-century Rotunda of St Martin, is Prague’s oldest surviving building. In the 18th century it was used as a powder magazine. The door and frescoes date from a renovation made about 1880. Nearby are a 1714 plague column and the baroque St Mary Chapel in the Ramparts (kaple Panny Marie v hradbách), dating from about 1750, and behind them the remains of the 14th-century Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist (kostelík Stětí sv Jana Křtitele).
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St John of Nepomuk
Following the tourist crowds downhill from Prague Castle via Ke Hradu will bring you to Nerudova, architecturally the most important street in Malá Strana; most of its old Renaissance façades were ‘baroquefied’ in the 18th century. (It’s named after the Czech poet Jan Neruda, who was famous for his short stories, Tales of Malá Strana.) Most of the buildings bear house signs. Built in 1566, St John of Nepomuk is adorned with the image of one of Bohemia’s patron saints.
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Convent of St George
The very ordinary-looking building to the left of the basilica was Bohemia’s first convent, established in 973 by Boleslav II. Closed and converted to an army barracks in 1782, it now a houses a branch of the National Gallery, featuring a collection of 19th-century Bohemian art. Highlights include the Art Nouveau sculpture of Josef Myslbek, Stanislav Sucharda and Bohumil Kafka; the glowing portraits by Josef Mánes; and the forest landscapes by Július Mařák.
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Church Of The Most Sacred Heart Of Our Lord
This church was built in 1932 and is one of Prague’s most original and unusual pieces of 20th-century architecture. It’s the work of Jože Plečnik, the Slovenian architect who also raised a few eyebrows with his additions to Prague Castle. Inspired by Egyptian temples and early Christian basilicas, the glazed-brick building sports a massive, tombstone-like bell tower pierced by a circular glass clock-window.
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Church of Sts Peter & Paul
Vratislav II’s Church of Sts Peter & Paul has been built and rebuilt over the centuries, culminating in a neogothic work-over by Josef Mocker in the 1880s. The twin steeples, a distinctive feature of the Vyšehrad skyline, were added in 1903. The interior is a swirling acid trip of colourful Art Nouveau frescoes, painted in the 1920s by various Czech artists.
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Rotunda of the Holy Cross
This tiny Romanesque rotunda is one of Prague’s oldest buildings, starting out as a parish church in about 1100. Saved from demolition and restored in the 1860s by a collective of Czech artists, it still has the remnants of some 600-year-old wall frescoes, though you will have to attend Mass to see them.
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Church of St Clement
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.
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