006-046 PRAGUE CHURCHES I 

With the number of its churches and with their artistic value Prague has ranged, since time immemorial, among the foremost cities of Europe. As early as in the Middle Ages Prague Castle numbered five, the castle of the Vyšehrad hill six, and the city itself more than forty churches. The number of the oldest Prague churches includes the so called rotundas, which were founded about 1,000 A. D., at the time of the culmination of the Romanesque style; they are characterized by semicircular arches, barrel vaults, and massive stone masonry. Churches dating from a later part of this period, the so called basilicas, were more monumental in character, a fact testified to by the the most valuable memorial of the period, the basilica of St. George in Prague Castle. 

In the reign of Charles IV a new style penetrated to Bohemia, viz. the Gothic style, characterized by high, pointed arches, complicated cross vaults, compound slender columns and everything creating the impression of deep space and reduction of massiveness. This period, too, left us many important architectural memorials, the most monumental of which is St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague Castle. The period between the end of the 16th century and the end of the 18th century was influenced by the Baroque style, characterized by complex division of space, irregular lines, and sumptuous ostentatiousness. In the Baroque period several new churches were built in Prague, and a number of others was reconstructed, or at least decorated in this style. 

The last Prague churches, built at the beginning of the 20th century, reflect modern tendences of Czech architecture, They are buildings characterized by monumental loftiness and purposive simplicity of both the general architectural concept and interior decoration. The towers of its numerous churches lend Prague its unique character, expressed in the epithet of "the city of a hundred towers". 

Text to the photographs: 

1. St. Martins's rotunda on the Vyšehrad hill dates probably from the second half of the 11th century. It is a minor building of simple design and decoration. It was used for church purposes until the 17th century when it was turned into a military store. At present it has been newly adapted. 

2. St. George's basilica in Prague Castle is the most important and best preserved architectural memorial of the Romanesque period. It was founded in the 10th century, its towers dating from the 12th century and the early Baroque facade from the 18th century. 

3. In the interior of St. George's basilica there are the remainders of Romanesque paintings and arcades dating from the 10th and 11th centuries. In the foreground there are the tombstones of Prince Boleslav II and Prince Vratislav. 

4. The church of Virgin Mary-Under-the-Chain in the Lesser Town of Prague was built in 1169-1182 and extended in the 13th century, and subsequently reconstructed in Baroque style. 

5. The monumental church of Virgin Mary-in-front-of-the-Týn was founded in the second half of the 14th century and completed by the Hussites. The towers of the church are 80 m high. 

6. The interior of the church of Virgin Mary-in-front-of-the-Týn is divided into three parts, the nave being surmounted by a Baroque vault. The church houses valuable works of art, such as a tin font dating from 1414, and the paintings by Karel Škréta and Petr Brandl, as well as the tombstone of the famous astronomer, Tycho de Brahe. 

7. The church of Our Lady of the Snow on Jungmann Square was founded about 1378. It actually consists of the chancel of the originally designed church whose construction was stopped by the Hussite Wars and never resumed.