The Church of St. James the Greater is a basilica of the Minorite monastery in the Old Town of Prague, originally Gothic and later remodelled in the Baroque style.
The Church of St. James the Greater, also given as the Church of St. James the Elder, is the church of the Minorite monastery in the Old Town of Prague. It stands in the streets Malá Štupartská and Jakubská, opposite the exit from Ungelt.[1]
History
According to the Minorite convent, the church was founded in 1232 by King Wenceslas I, apparently in connection with the establishment of the Old Town of Prague. The building may also have been linked to the arrival of the relics of St. James in Bohemia in 1212.[1]
The present church dates from a later period. In 1319 John of Luxembourg began building an elongated three-aisled basilica with a long, tall chancel and two façade towers. Charles IV completed the Gothic building in 1374. According to the source, it is the second longest church in Prague, after St Vitus Cathedral. It served as a venue for ceremonies at the funerals of rulers: in 1378 the body of Charles IV lay in state here on a catafalque surrounded by five hundred candles, and in 1577 Emperor Maximilian II was temporarily buried in the church.[1]
After a fire in 1689 the architect Jan Šimon Pánek carried out a Baroque remodelling. Construction was completed in 1702, and the interior was finished between 1736 and 1739. The remodelling removed the Gothic forms from the exterior, but the ground plan still corresponds to the Gothic building of the first half of the 14th century.[1]
Appearance of the church
The church is a three-aisled basilica with a presbytery, a Baroque choir and a tower in the south-west. The façade decoration was created by Ottavio Mosto, who made three stucco reliefs above the portals: St. Francis of Assisi, St. James and St. Anthony of Padua.[1] The interior, after the restoration of 1941, is a tall and long space with a Gothic layout, with Baroque galleries above the side aisles. The space is articulated by pilasters of artificial marble by K. Schartzmann with stucco work by A. Bolla. The vault of the nave bears paintings from the life of the Virgin Mary and the Glorification of the Holy Trinity by F. Voget from 1736, which F. Duchoslav repainted in 1881.[1]
Artistic furnishings
The oldest sculptural work in the church is the late Gothic polychrome Pietà from around 1500 on the high altar, which was rescued during the fire of 1689. The altarpiece, the Martyrdom of St. James, was painted by Václav Vavřinec Reiner.[1] The source regards as the most valuable artwork the high Baroque tomb of the Highest Chancellor of Bohemia, Jan Václav Vratislav of Mitrovice, from 1714 to 1716, designed by J. B. Fischer von Erlach and decorated with sculptures by Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff.[1]
The church has the third largest collection of paintings by Petr Brandl, after the Church of Our Lady Victorious and the Church of St. Margaret in Břevnov. These are four altar paintings from the first two decades of the 18th century on the altars of All Saints, St. Wenceslas, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Other paintings include the Flight into Egypt by Jan Jiří Heinsch and St. Florian by Michal Václav Halwachs.[1]
Above the side entrance from the cloister walks, beneath the unfinished north-west tower, is a memorial plaque from 1615 in honour of the butchers' guild, which according to the source saved the Minorites and the church from devastation in 1420 and 1611.[1] The organ in the choir loft dates from 1705, and according to the convent the church is known as a concert venue where organ concerts are held.[1]