St Nicholas Cathedral
To get to St Nicholas Cathedral or Chrám sv. Mikuláše in Czech, we leave Klementinum behind and move eastwards. After passing through the small square of Mariánské námestí, you should keep moving in the same direction along Platnérská street or Linhartska street until you come across U Radnice street which in its northern tip meets Námestí Franze Kafky (Franz Kafka Square).
The small square is the newest addition to the historical center dedicated to the celebrated writer who passed the first years of his life in a house on the corner of Kaprova Street and Maiselova Street which was unfortunately taken down in 1897, during a redevelopment of the Jewish Town. A memorial plate and of course the name of the square commemorates today the most famous son of the city. The small square is dominated by the western facade of St Nicholas Cathedral (Chrám SV. Mikuláše).
The first written mention of the church goes back to 1273 although it is certain that a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas existed here since the Early Romanesque period. The church was reconstructed in the Gothic style in the 14th century, expanding to a three-aisle church with two towers, an attached rectory, a school, a cemetery, and an ossuary.
The Gothic church became a center of the preaching of the Hussite movement with many representatives of Hussitism and the Reformation preaching here in the late 14th and early 15th century. In 1635 the church came into the possession of the Benedictines who started building their monastery. However, the fire set by French incendiaries in the Old Town in 1689, resulted in its destruction. One of the most renowned Baroque architects, Kilian Ignaz Dienzenhofer, was commissioned to build the new church. In 1732 – 1737, a monumental piece of Baroque architecture was erected on a spot that looked quite different at the time..
The front of the church originally looked onto a small square known as the “Hen Market”, and the church was surrounded by other buildings, which have since been demolished. It was therefore not originally designed to be seen from a distance, something we must bear in mind when we see it today in the open space of the Old Town Square. Dienzenhofer had to take into account the limited space in which the church then stood, and designed it as a cross-shaped structure combining a central and a longitudinal ground plan, surmounted by a copula.
The church of St. Nicholas in the Old Town is one of his crowning works, and the complexity of the configuration of its interior together with its interesting lighting scheme and picturesque plasticity combine to make it one of the most suggestive church interiors in Prague. The stucco work was executed by Bernardo Spinetti and his journeymen, the frescoes were painted by Bavarian painter Cosmas Damian Asam, and the sculptures are the work of Antonín Braun, who had taken over his uncle Matthias Bernard Braun’s famed sculpture workshop.
It was here where Dr. Karel Farský announced the establishment of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church in 1920; to this day St Nicholas remains a Hussite church. Today the church hosts several classical concerts throughout the week that can be a perfect chance to immerse into its Baroque beauty in the most atmospheric way possible.
