St. Jacob's Basilica (Prague)
The Basilica of St. Jacob ( Czech Bazilika svatého Jakuba Většího - Basilica of St. James the Elder ) is a Roman Catholic church in Prague's Old Town , Czech Republic . It bears the title of a minor basilica and is part of the World Heritage Historic Center of Prague .
Predecessor church
The first church was here in the Gothic style, together with the establishment of the minority monastery in 1232 by Wenceslas I built. The exact location of this original church and its appearance are unknown. The coronation meal of the royal couple John of Bohemia and Elisabeth took place in the church in 1311 .
Church building
After a fire in the monastery that destroyed everything, Johann von Böhmen founded a new Gothic church in 1319, which was completed under Charles IV in 1374. The vaulted ceiling measured around 30 meters at its highest point. The church itself was one of the three longest royal churches in Prague. The festivities always took place here when rulers were buried. In 1378 Charles IV was laid out on a magnificent catafalk with five hundred candles, and in 1577 Emperor Maximilian II of Habsburg was temporarily buried here. The church was destroyed in 1689 in a fire that was believed to have been started.
Baroque
During the reconstruction, the mighty three-aisled basilica with a tower on the southwest side was redesigned in the Baroque style. Inside, the church looks extremely monumental with the new barrel vault lowered by five meters and the elongated room and the baroque grandstands above the aisles; the structure with pilasters made of artificial marble comes from K. Schartzmann. The decoration of the front facade is the work of the Paduan master Ottavio Mosto. He created three stucco reliefs over the portals of Saints Francis of Assisi , James and Anthony of Padua . The reconstruction also included the addition of more than 20 altars. Artists like Jan Jiří Heinsch , Wenzel Lorenz Reiner, and Peter Johann Brandl created paintings for the altars. 1974 received the church from Pope Paul VI. the honorary title of the Basilica minor .
The church houses a Pietà and the grave of Count Johann Wenzel Wratislaw von Mitrowitz , it was created by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach . To the right of the grave entrance is also a mummified forearm that is over 400 years old. Maria is said to have held a jewel thief while stealing from the high altar, which is why he had to be cut off by monks.
organ
The original organ from 1705 is the work of the Czech organist Abraham Starka from Loket . The organ was repeatedly restored and adapted to modern playing styles. The present instrument has four manuals, 91 registers and 8,277 pipes.
Web links
- Basilica of St. James the Elder on Prague.eu
Individual evidence
- ^ Bazilika sv. Jakuba Většího on gcatholic.org
- ↑ Historic Center of Prague on unesco.org (engl.)
Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 17 ″ N , 14 ° 25 ′ 29 ″ E