Church of St Nicholas (Lesser Town)
The Church of St Nicholas (Kostel svatého Mikuláše) 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 the construction was first directed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi.[5] The decisive phase came after 1702. The design and the direction of the works in 1703–1711 are attributed to Christoph Dientzenhofer.[4][5] Completion was delayed by lack of money, the plague of 1713 and the wars of 1741–1744.[4] Kilian Ignaz 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 Johann Lucas Kracker and the fresco in the dome by František Xaver Palko in 1753–1754.[5] The sculptors included Ignác František Platzer and Richard Prachner.[5]
Bell tower
The tower of the church belonged to the Lesser Town municipality as compensation for the municipal bell tower demolished by the Jesuits. It therefore has its own entrance with the Lesser Town coat of arms and its own house number, 556.[4][6] The upper part of the bell tower was completed by Anselmo Lurago, son-in-law of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.[4] A watchman in the tower looked out for fires. Under the communist regime the State Security set up an observation post at the top, from which the neighbouring Western embassies were watched.[4] The bell tower is managed by the city and serves as a lookout tower.[4][6]
Architecture
The west front has a convex-concave plan, and above the central portal is the coat of arms of František Karel Libštejnský of Kolowrat, the main patron of the building.[5] A crypt extends under the whole church.[5] The Heritage Catalogue of the National Heritage Institute lists the church as part of the national cultural monument Church of St Nicholas in the Lesser Town. The former professed house is used by Charles University.[5][1]
Sources
* The sources are collected and the preliminary text of this entry is drafted with artificial intelligence, on the instruction of the editorial staff; the entry has not yet been verified by an editor — report a mistake.