006-049 PRAGUE CHURCHES IV 

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. The church of St. Salvator in the Old Town of Prague is a Renaissance building rebuilt in the Baroque style in the first half of the 17th century, its front facade neing Baroque in character, too. The balcony is decorated with the statues of saints by the well-known Baroque, sculptor, Jan Jiří Bendl. 

2. The interior of St. Salvator's is decorated with plaster-work. The main altar incorporates the canvas of the Transformation dating from 1632. 

3. The church of St. Ignaz in the New Town of Prague was built in the second half of the 17th century. Its front-facade is surmounted by a statue of St. Ignaz in the rays of sun, its portico being decorated with the statues of the saints. 

4. The interior of St. Ignaz is impressive by the wealth of its decorations. The main altar with the picture of St. Ignaz is extraordinarily high and is decorated with the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

5. The church of St. John of Nepomuk at Hradčany ranks among the first buildings of the famous Baroque builder, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The church was built between 1720 and 1729. 

6. The church of St Nicholas in the Old Town of Prague was built by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, too, between 1732 and 1735. However, as early as 1787 it was abolished and was not restored to its function until the beginning of the 20th century. The church ranks among the foremost Baroque buildings in Prague. 

7. The interior of St. Nicholas'. The church is a central building built over a cruciform plan and roofed with a cupola. Its walls are decorated with plasterwork, the cupola with the sculptures of the saints and a large crystal chandelier.