St. George's Basilica stands on Jiřské náměstí at Prague Castle. It is one of the most important Romanesque monuments in the country and, according to Prague City Tourism, the second oldest church in Prague. It is dominated by two white stone towers 41 metres high. [2]
Origins and medieval reconstructions
The church was founded around 920 by Prince Vratislav I. In 925 the remains of the murdered Princess Ludmila, grandmother of St Wenceslas and the first Czech martyr, were placed here. After the neighbouring St George's Convent was founded in 973, the church was enlarged and rebuilt into a three-aisled basilica in the Ottonian, early Romanesque style. After a fire in 1142 the abbess of the convent, Berta, restored it almost to its present form. At that time two towers of sandstone marlstone, with a stone roof and two rows of Romanesque windows, were added to the side aisles in the east. [2]
Towers and decoration
The narrower northern tower is called Eva and is slightly inclined, by about 40 centimetres. The wider southern tower bears the name Adam and was built above a former separate chapel. The Eva tower was reinforced in the 1970s as part of construction work. In the first half of the 13th century the chapel of St Ludmila, with her tomb, was added. In the crypt, reached by a Baroque staircase, there is a black sculpture depicting the body of a dead girl as a symbol of human transience and fragility. Remains of Romanesque wall painting have survived on the vault of the chancel and in the chapel of St Ludmila. Of the original Romanesque furnishings there survive parts of a relief with the Madonna crowned by angels, with the kneeling abbess Mlada and Berta, and at the side Přemysl Otakar I and his sister, the abbess Anežka. [2]
The Přemyslid tomb and later alterations
Until 1055 the basilica served as the official burial place of the Přemyslids, before St Vitus Cathedral was built. Prince Vratislav is buried here, and probably also Oldřich and Jaromír. According to Prague City Tourism, the Romanesque interior with the Přemyslid tomb is included in the tour circuit of Prague Castle. The space is also used as a concert hall and is not heated. [2]
According to the website, the view of the eastern end of the basilica from Jiřská Street is the most impressive. The portal in Jiřská Street was made around 1520 by the foundry of Benedikt Ried and shows a knight fighting a dragon in the tympanum. In the 14th century a new western facade was built, altered in the 17th century in the early Baroque style with the typical terracotta plaster. It is decorated with a sandstone statue of the founder Vratislav I, probably by Jan Jiří Bendl. Between 1718 and 1722 František Maxmilián Kaňka added in the southwestern corner a Baroque chapel of St John of Nepomuk, built to celebrate his beatification. [2]