Prague Loreto
According to legend, in order to keep it safe from the hands of the infidel, the simple house in which the Virgin Mary is supposed to have lived was transported from Nazareth by divine intervention....
Category: baroque
The Catholic victory in the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648) resulted in the most substantial changes to the fabric of the city since the 14th century. And the chosen medium for the church’s renewed authority across the kingdom was the uncompromising power of baroque sculpture.
Charles Bridge: Jan Nepomuk
The baroque statues for which Charles Bridge is rightly famous are not arranged according to any predetermined plan. They were erected individually over many decades, part of the programme of recatholicization after the Thirty Years’...
Charles Bridge: Saint Lutgardis
Visitors to Prague are always surprised to learn that the avenue of saints keeping watch over Charles Bridge was never planned as a single architectural scheme. In fact the statues were created by no fewer...
Vrtba Gardens
Tucked away behind an unassuming gateway on Karmelitská street in Malá Strana is one of the hidden gems of Prague: the baroque garden constructed for Jan Josef Count of Vrtba, considered to be among the...
Charles Bridge: Saint Ivo
Saint Ivo Helory was a thirteenth-century parish priest from Brittany who was canonized in 1347. He trained as a lawyer and rapidly made his name as an advocate for orphans, widows and the poor. Two...
Nerudova 212/16: The Golden Chalice
This renaissance house with its baroque exterior is typical of the residences in this part of the city’s Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter). Many of them carry baroque era cartouches with symbols of animals, birds or...
Valdštejn Gardens and ‘Sala Terrena’
These impressive formal gardens form part of the palace complex designed for Count Albrecht of Wallenstein by the architectural triumvirate of Giovanni Pieroni, Andrea Spezza and Nicolo Sebregondi. Covering four-and-a-half acres — nearly two hectares...
Basilica of St James the Greater
The church of St James the Greater (sv. Jakub Větší) was founded in 1232 in Prague’s Old Town, possibly as a shrine to hold a relic of St James acquired by the Přemyslid king Otakar...
Vodičkova 708/35: U Červeného pole
This two-storey townhouse ‘U Červeného pole’ (‘The Red Field’) is an ancient survivor in a street otherwise dominated by much taller buildings from the 1900s, such as the nearby ‘U Myšáka’. The earliest records show...
Maltézské náměstí 471/1: Nostic Palace
This early baroque palace in the Malá Strana district was built between 1662 and 1675 for Jan Hartvik, count of Nostitz (‘Nostic’ in Czech orthography). For many years attributed to Francesco Caratti, later analysis suggests...
