Church of the Infant Jesus

Three or four buildings south of Vrtba Palace along Karmelitská road are the Church of the Infant Jesus of Prague (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné a Pražské Jezulátko). It is the first Baroque Church of the city, built in 1611-1613 for the German-speaking Lutherans in the style of a Roman-type basilica. After the Βattle of White Mountain in 1621 and the abolition of the Protestant faith, the church was given to the order of Carmelites.

A triumphalist altarpiece was sent from Rome by Pope Gregory XV and a minuscule (45 centimeters in height) wooden statuette of Infant Jesus that was meant to make the church famous all over the world was handed over to the Carmelites by Countess Polyxena of Lobkowicz.

The Infant Jesus became famous after the Saxon invasion of the Thirty-Years’ War in which the Church was heavily damaged and the statue’s hands were broken. Supposedly one of the monks heard Infant Jesus asking him for help and promising to bless him and the other brothers. The monk made new hands for the statuette and the miracles began soon after that.

The church was reconstructed in the Early Baroque style (1636-1644). The whole orientation of the building changed so it could have the front façade on the main street which was named after the order (Karmelitska). Among others, it is one of the few churches in the world where the presbytery is not on the east side of the church but the west.

The reputed miraculous curing powers of the Infant Jesus have brought thousands of religious people to the church through the centuries. The statuette is especially venerated in Hispanic countries which consider it to be one of the most revered objects of the Catholic world.

Today the church displays a collection of the gifts that have been offered to the famous Bambino di Praga over the centuries as well as a quaint wardrobe of dozens of different outfits made for the statue, some of them pretty valuable. More