Church of Our Lady Under the Chain, Malá Strana, Prague, Bohemia, Czechia

Viewed from Maltese Square looking east.

"The Church of Our Lady under the Chain is a Roman Catholic monastic church under the command of the Johannite Order. It is the torso of an unfinished larger medieval Maltese temple, begun in the Romanesque style. The present church is only the chancel of the intended temple. Together with the neighboring buildings of the Malostran Maltese Command, it is protected as a cultural monument. It is located in Lázeňská Street in Prague 1, Malá Strana.

According to the official website of the Order of Malta, the full original name of this tabernacle is the church of Our Lady under the chain of the end of the bridge with an archaic epithet that is not usually used.

The Johannite (Maltese) Commandery on the Lesser Side was founded between 1158 and 1169 by King Vladislav I and was located at the foot of the then-built Judith Bridge. By 1182, the Johannites had built the Romanesque basilica of the Virgin Mary, three-aisled with a transept, in the place of today's courtyard. In the middle of the 13th century, the command was surrounded by walls with towers and controlled the southern approach to the bridge, while the area of the bishop's court was also adjacent to it from the northern side.

The process of rebuilding the unsuitable size of the temple in the Gothic period cannot be reliably dated. It apparently began in the 1st half of the 14th century, possibly after raising funds by selling off property acquired from the disbanded Knights Templar. The chancel must have been standing in 1378, as it was one of the places where the body of the deceased Charles IV was displayed. During the Hussite wars, the towers and Parler portico were built, and the construction of the nave was started, and therefore part of the Romanesque basilica was demolished. In 1420, the church was burned by the Hussites, it was repaired again after a fire in 1503.

Malá Strana (Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", German: Prager Kleinseite) or more formally Menší Město pražské (English: Lesser Town of Prague) is a district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods.

In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center of the ethnic German (and since 16th century also Italian) citizens of Prague. It also housed many noble palaces while the right-bank towns were comparatively more bourgeois and more Bohemian Czech.

Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa]; German: Prag [pʁaːk]; Latin: Praga) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters.

Prague is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611).

It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.

Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas, and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. It is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.

Prague is classified as a "Alpha-" global city according to GaWC studies. In 2019, the city was ranked as 69th most livable city in the world by Mercer. In the same year, the PICSA Index ranked the city as 13th most livable city in the world. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2017, the city receives more than 8.5 million international visitors annually. In 2017, Prague was listed as the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul.

Bohemia (Latin Bohemia, German Böhmen, Polish Czechy) is a region in the west of the Czech Republic. Previously, as a kingdom, they were the center of the Czech Crown. The root of the word Czech probably corresponds to the meaning of man. The Latin equivalent of Bohemia, originally Boiohaemum (literally "land of Battles"), which over time also influenced the names in other languages, is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Boios, who lived in this area from the 4th to the 1st century BC Bohemia on it borders Germany in the west, Austria in the south, Moravia in the east and Poland in the north. Geographically, they are bounded from the north, west and south by a chain of mountains, the highest of which are the Krkonoše Mountains, in which the highest mountain of Bohemia, Sněžka, is also located. The most important rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava, with the fertile Polabean Plain extending around the Elbe. The capital and largest city of Bohemia is Prague, other important cities include, for example, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice and České Budějovice, Jihlava also lies partly on the historical territory of Bohemia." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

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Taken in: Bohemia / Hlavní město Praha / Praha 1 / Malá Strana (show map)

Taken on: July 14, 2019

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