Cathedral Heights, Prague Castle & Lesser Town, Prague, Czechia

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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert is a Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Until 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral. The cathedral is a prominent example of Gothic architecture, and is the largest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. The cathedral's dimensions are 407 feet x 197 feet (124m × 60m), the main tower is 337 feet (102.8m) high, front towers 296 feet (82m), arch height 109 feet (33.2m). The current cathedral is the third of a series of religious buildings at the site, all dedicated to St. Vitus. The first church was an early Romanesque rotunda founded by Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia in 930. This patron saint was chosen because Wenceslaus had acquired a holy relic – the arm of St. Vitus – from Emperor Henry I. It is also possible that Wenceslaus, wanting to convert his subjects to Christianity more easily, chose a saint whose name sounds very much like the name of Slavic solar deity Svantevit. Two religious populations, the increasing Christian and decreasing pagan community, lived simultaneously in Prague castle at least until the 11th century. Construction of the present-day Gothic cathedral began on 21 November 1344, when the seat of Prague was elevated to an archbishopric. King John of Bohemia laid the foundation stone for the new building. The patrons were the chapter of the cathedral led by a dean the Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice, and, above all, Charles IV, King of Bohemia and a soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, who intended the new cathedral to be a coronation church, family crypt, treasury for the most precious relics of the kingdom, and the last resting place cum pilgrimage site of patron saint Wenceslaus. The first master builder was a Frenchman Matthias of Arras, summoned from the Papal Palace in Avignon. Matthias designed the overall layout of the building as, basically, an import of French Gothic: a triple-naved basilica with flying buttresses, short transept, five-bayed choir and decagon apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. However, he lived to build only the easternmost parts of the choir: the arcades and the ambulatory. The slender verticality of Late French Gothic and clear, almost rigid respect of proportions distinguish his work today.
Additional information on the Prague Cathedral may be obtained at Wikipedia.

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

Taken on: January 14, 2025

Tags:

Metropolitan Cathedral

Cathedral of Saint Vitus

Saint Wenceslaus

Saint Adalbert

Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Prague

Catholic Cathedral of Prague

Cathedral of Prague

Archbishop of Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral

Katedrala Svateho Vita

Svatovitska katedrala

Gothic Architecture

Prague Castle

Bohemian Kings

Holy Roman Emperors

Romanesque Rotunda

Wenceslaus I

Duke of Bohemia

Emperor Henry I

Svantevit

Archbishopric Seat

King John of Bohemia

Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice

Arnost of Pardubice

Charles IV

King of Bohemia

Matthias of Arras

French Gothic

Triple-Naved Basilica

Flying Buttresses

Short Transept

Decagon Apse

Decagonal Apse

Vaults

Vaulted Ceiling

Prague

Praha

Czechia

Czech Republic

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Sets appears in: • 2024 - Warsaw, Prague & Milan

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