006-051 PRAGUE CHURCHES VI 

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". 

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1. The Neo-Romanesque church of St. Constantinus and St Methodius at Karlín was built between 1854 and 1863, its interior decoration, however, not being completed until 1897. 

2. The interior of the church of St. Constantinus and St. Methodius is provided with rich polychrome decorations. The vault is decorated with paintings, the arcades with the scenes from the life of St. Constantinus and St Methodius. 

3. St. Peter's and St. Paul's church at Vyšehrad was founded as early as the 11th century. However, from the original building only the aisles and the adjoining chapels have been preserved to our day. Its present-day appearance dates from the end of the 19th century when it was reconstruction in a pseudo-Gothic style. 

4. St. Ludmila's church at Vinohrady originated at the end of the 19th century as a pseudo-Gothic building. The tympanum of the main portal is decorated with a relief by Josef Václav Myslbek. 

5. The church of the Holy Heart at Vinohrady is of an entirely unconventional design. It is a hall building with a wide tower built in 1928—1935 on the basis of a design by Josip Plečnik, Slovenian architect and Professor of the School of Applied Art in Prague. 

6. The most remarkable feature of the interior of the church of Holy Heart is its main altar designed on the lines of ancient Christian altars. Above the altar there is a large sculpture of the Holy Heart, its front side being decorated with six statues of Bohemian patron saints. 

7. St. Wenceslas' church at Vršovice is the only Prague church built in the style of the Constructivism. It was erected between 1929 and 1930 according to the design by Professor Josef Gočár. The interior of the church is simple, yet monumental.