006-048 PRAGUE CHURCHES III 

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. Holy Cottage in the courtyard of the world-famous Loreto of Prague was built in 1626-1631 according to the Italian chapel known as Santa Casa di Loreto. 

2. Outside walls of the Holy Cottage were originally decorated with paintings which were replaced with figural plasterwork decorations after 1664. 

3. St. James' church in the Old Town of Prague dates from the end of the 17th century. Its interior is divided by twelve pilasters and decorated with valuable canvases and wall paintings. The church ranks among the most beautiful sacral buildings in Prague. 

4. St. Gallen's church in the Old Town of Prague, founded in 1232, ranked for long among the foremost Prague churches. Its present-day appearance dates from the Baroque period. 

5. St. Ursula's church in the New Town of Prague originated as a part of the Ursuline monastery in 1704. It is a single nave building with rich interior decorations. 

6. The church of St. John-on-the-Rock in the New Town of Prague was one of the first buildings of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, the famous architect and designer of many church and palace buildings. St. John's church was built according to his design between 1730 and 1749. 

7. The church of Victorious Virgin Mary in the Lesser Town of Prague originated as a Renaissance building at the beginning of the 17th century. The interior of the church is decorated with Baroque altars, one of which includes the world famous statue of Baby Jesus — Bambino di Praga — dating from 1628.