A Baroque church in the middle of Lesser Town Square in Prague, the work of Kryštof and Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, with a separate municipal bell tower.*
The Church of St Nicholas is a Baroque church in the middle of Lesser Town Square in Prague. It was built as a Jesuit church and, together with the former professed house and the bell tower, forms a complex that divides the square into two parts.[1][2]
History
A medieval church of St Nicholas, consecrated in 1283, stood on the site.[3] The Jesuits obtained imperial permission to demolish the old church.[4] The foundation stone of the new church was laid in 1673, and construction was first led by Giovanni Domenico Orsi.[5] The decisive phase came after 1702. The design and direction of construction in 1703–1711 are attributed to Kryštof Dientzenhofer.[4][5] Completion was prolonged by a lack of money, the plague of 1713 and the wars of 1741–1744.[4] Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer completed the nave with the crossing by 1751, and the dome was finished in 1752.[5] The fresco of St Nicholas in the nave was painted in 1760 by Jan Lukáš Kracker, and the fresco in the dome by František Xaver Palko in 1753–1754.[5] The sculptural decoration was carried out by, among others, Ignác František Platzer and Richard Prachner.[5]
The bell tower
The tower of the church belonged to the Malá Strana municipality as a replacement for the municipal bell tower that the Jesuits had demolished. It therefore has its own entrance with the coat of arms of the City of Prague and its own house number, 556.[4][6] The upper part of the bell tower was completed by Anselmo Lurago, son-in-law of Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer.[4] A watchman kept watch there for fires. Under the communist regime, an observation post of the State Security was set up at the top, from which neighbouring Western embassies were monitored.[4] The bell tower is administered by the city and serves as a lookout tower.[4][6]
The building
The west façade has a convex–concave ground plan and, above the central portal, the coat of arms of František Karel Libštejnský of Kolowrat, the building's greatest patron.[5] There is a crypt beneath the whole church.[5] The Monument Catalogue of the National Heritage Institute lists the church as part of the National Cultural Monument Kostel sv. Mikuláše na Malé Straně. The former professed house serves Charles University.[5][1]