Carpathian Church of the Archangel Michael

The southern flank of Prague’s Petřín Hill is dominated by an extensive park created in the popular ‘English’ style for the sixth Prince Kinský between 1827 and 1831.

Near the summit of the wooded hill is a curious anomaly: a 17th-century orthodox church transferred in its entirety from the Carpathian village of Velyki Lučky (Великі Лучки in today’s Ukraine). The building has a bizarre history, having been dismantled and rebuilt twice: once in 1793 when it was sold to a wealthier neighbouring village; and again in 1929 when the region, then part of Czechoslovakia, sold it to Prague’s National Museum as an example of typical vernacular architecture.

The church combines rustic baroque with the ‘Boiko’ style still found in numerous other triple-spired wooden churches in the region; very similar examples from the Slovakian villages of Inovce and Mirol’a are now under the protection of UNESCO.