St Vitus Cathedral
The Cathedral of St Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert (Katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is the cathedral within the grounds of Prague Castle and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague.[1] Bohemian kings and queens were crowned here. It holds the remains of the patron saints of the land, rulers, nobles and archbishops.[2] The cathedral was the destination of the coronation processions along the Royal Route to Prague Castle.[3]*
Earlier buildings
The present church is the third church of the same dedication on the site. Prince Wenceslas founded a pre-Romanesque rotunda here around 925, or in 929 according to another source.[2][1] After 1060 it was replaced by a three-aisled basilica with two towers, begun by Prince Spytihněv.[2][1] The church gained importance after the Prague bishopric was established in 973.[2]
Gothic cathedral
Pope Clement VI approved the establishment of the Prague archbishopric by a bull of 30 April 1344.[1] On 21 November 1344 King John of Luxembourg, accompanied by his sons Charles and John Henry and by the first Archbishop of Prague, Arnošt of Pardubice, laid the foundation stone of the Gothic church.[4] The first builders, Matthias of Arras and after him Peter Parler, built the choir with its ring of chapels, the St Wenceslas Chapel, the Golden Gate and the lower part of the Great South Tower.[2] Construction was interrupted by the Hussite wars in 1419 and the church remained unfinished for centuries.[2]
Completion
In the second half of the 19th century the Union for the Completion of St Vitus Cathedral began repairs of the original part and the Gothic Revival completion.[2] The completion took place between 1872 and 1929. Both western towers were finished in 1892.[4] The cathedral was consecrated on 28 September 1929 in the presence of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Archbishop František Kordač.[1]
Great South Tower
Peter Parler began building the Great South Tower at the end of the 14th century. A Renaissance gallery was added in the 16th century, and in the 18th century the tower received its present cupola.[5] The cupola of 1770 was designed by the Prague Castle architect Nicolo Pacassi. The tower is 99.3 m high, and 287 steps lead to its gallery.[4] The tower holds the Zikmund bell of 1549, estimated to weigh about 15 tonnes, the largest bell in the Czech Republic.[5]
Interior
The St Wenceslas Chapel with the tomb of the patron saint has walls lined with precious stones and 14th-century wall paintings. A door in the chapel leads to the Crown Chamber, where the Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept.[2] The Royal Crypt is the largest burial place of Bohemian rulers. It holds 14 Bohemian princes and kings, among them Charles IV, Wenceslas IV, Ladislaus the Posthumous, George of Poděbrady and Rudolf II.[1] The silver tomb of St John of Nepomuk from 1736 was made to a design by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach.[1]
Administration and today
Under an agreement between President Václav Klaus and Archbishop Dominik Duka, the state, through the Prague Castle Administration, received the cathedral building, while the Metropolitan Chapter kept the movable furnishings. The chapter runs the liturgical life and the Prague Castle Administration the visitor operation.[1] About 2 million visitors see the interior every year.[1] In June 2026 new organs by the organ builder Gerhard Grenzing, with four manuals, 122 stops and 5,755 pipes, were blessed in the cathedral. The final price was to be at most 160 million crowns, most of which was raised in a national collection.[6]
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.