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The Church of Our Lady beneath the Chain (Kostel Panny Marie pod řetězem) is a Roman Catholic church in the Lesser Town of Prague. It is the conventual church of the Grand Priory of Bohemia of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Order of Malta).[1][2]*
Origins and name
The Romanesque church stood at the Lesser Town end of the stone Judith Bridge, the predecessor of Charles Bridge.[1] After King Vladislaus II returned from the crusade it passed to the Knights Hospitaller, who acquired land here between 1156 and 1159 and made the church their centre in Bohemia.[1][2] According to the order, the epithet “beneath the Chain” refers to a chain that closed the gate of the commandery or was stretched across the river to collect tolls from boats and rafts.[2] The original building was a three-aisled basilica.[1]
Building history
The church was damaged by fires and by plundering during the Hussite Wars and was repeatedly restored.[1] At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries it was rebuilt into its present form by the architects Giovanni Battista Spinetti and Carlo Lurago.[1] The entrance leads between two Gothic towers; of the Gothic decoration, wall paintings behind the Chapel of St John of Nepomuk have survived.[1] In 1378 the body of the late Emperor Charles IV lay in state here for a day and a night.[2]
Interior
The high altar bears a painting by Karel Škréta completed around 1640. It shows the Virgin Mary blessing the order's forces in the battle for Malta in 1565 against the fleet of Mustafa Pasha.[1] The side aisles are lined with nine chapels. The order's treasury is kept behind a grille in the Chapel of St John the Baptist.[1] Twenty-four carved stone tombstones of members and superiors of the order survive in the church; the oldest, from 1404, belongs to Peter, superior of the commandery.[1] A marble statue stands above the crypt of Grand Prior Rudolf Colloredo-Wallsee, who commanded the defence of Prague against the Swedes in 1648.[1][2]
Today
The church hosts the order's services and concerts, among them the series Organ Vespers of the Knights of Malta.[3]