The Cathedral of St. Vitus

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From The Story of Prague by Francis Lützow, 1920.

The Cathedral Church of St. Vitus, near the Royal castle of the Hradcany, deserves first mention. It has already been noted that the gift of a relic of St. Vitus induced Prince Wenceslas to erect a church in honour of that saint. This small church, built in the Romanesque style, was not finished when Wenceslas was cruelly murdered by his treacherous younger brother Boleslav. When Wenceslas’s body was transported here the church became known as the Church of St. Vitus and St. Wenceslas, and after the second Bishop of Prague, the martyred Adalbert, had been also buried here, it was for a time known as the Church of St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert.

This first church, which was probably of very modest dimensions, soon became too small for the pious visitors who wished to venerate there the relics of Wenceslas and the martyred Bishop of Prague. The church which, to use the words of Monsignore Lehner, had become ‘the metropolitan church of the whole Bohemian empire’—then extending further than at almost any other period—remained insufficient even when a smaller church or chapel adjoining it had been erected. Prince Spytihnev II., therefore, resolved to build a larger church on the Hradcany Hill, and, space being very restricted, he demolished the old building of Wenceslas to make room for the new church, which, like the previous one, was in the Romanesque style. The new church was destroyed during the frequent civic tumults of Prague. Shortly after the foundation of the Archbishopric of Prague and during the reign of King John, it was decided to build a new cathedral on the Hradcany Hill.

Charles, through whose influence the impecunious King John had given his consent to the building, took the greatest interest in it, both during the lifetime of his father and after he had succeeded him as King. As architect he chose Matthew of Arras, whom he had met during one of his visits to Avignon. After some years, the building was continued by Peter Parler and his son John. The records of the cathedral tell us that in 1418 Master Peter, generally known as Petrlik, was architect.

The great buildings erected in the Gothic style, which by this time was generally adopted in Bohemia, progressed very slowly. The Hussite troubles caused a complete interruption of the work. During the reign of Vladislav II. attempts were made to continue the building, and it is probably rightly conjectured that the King entrusted this task also to his favourite architect, Benes of Loun. The Thirty Years’ War again stopped all endeavours to finish the building of the cathedral, and in the following century the bombardment by Frederick the Great greatly damaged the cathedral.

Within recent years patriotic efforts have been made to finish at last this building, of which every Bohemian, independently of his religious views and his political opinions, is necessarily proud. A society was formed for this purpose in 1859, and the restoration and rebuilding has, it must be admitted, very slowly proceeded ever since that date. The work was at first entrusted to the architect, Joseph Mocker, who had very successfully restored the bridge towers and the powder-tower at Prague. Since his death (in 1899) the work has been entrusted to Mr. Charles Hilbert. I shall now briefly refer to the cathedral as it now is, and I may mention, as it is impossible to give here a full account of the treasures which it contains, that an excellent guide book, published in German as well as in the language of the country, can be obtained in the church.

Entering the church, we first see at our left the famous Wenceslas chapel, the most magnificent of all. We enter it through bronze gates, on which is a brass ring, to which the saint is said to have clung when murderously attacked by his brother. The walls of the chapel are inlaid with Bohemian precious stones; above are curious frescoes of the time of Charles IV. The chapel also contains a candelabrum with a statue of the saint, said to be the work of Peter Fischer; a painting of the school of Lucas Cranach, representing the murder of Wenceslas; and the armour and helmet of the saint. From this chapel a secret passage leads to the room where the Bohemian crown jewels are preserved. We next come to the Martinic chapel, that of St. Simon and Juda, and then that of the Waldstein family; opposite the last-named chapel is a wood-carving representing the devastation of the church by Frederick of the Palatinate, which has already been mentioned in these pages.

Between the Waldstein and the Vlasim chapels is the Royal oratory or pew, which is connected by a covered passage with the Hradcany Castle. The oratory was built during the reign of Vladislav II. by Benes of Loun.

Opposite the Vlasim chapel—built by Ocko of Vlasim, Archbishop of Prague, who died in 13 Bo—is the shrine of St. John Nepomuk, which greatly attracts the attention of the visitors to the cathedral, though it has more barbaric splendour than artistic value. In the nave of the church is the monument to the Bohemian kings, erected under Rudolph’s reign by Colin of Malines.

Charles IV. and his four wives, Ladislas, Posthumus, George of Podebrad, Ferdinand I., Maximilian, as well as Rudolph himself, are buried here.

Lützow, Francis, The Story of Prague, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1920

Francis Lützow

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