St. Nicholas on the Lesser Town
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| Construction year: | 1703-1755 |
| Inauguration: | 1752 |
| Architect : | Christoph Dientzenhofer , Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer , Anselmo Lurago |
| Style elements : | Baroque |
| Tower height: |
79 m |
| Location: | 50 ° 5 '16.5 " N , 14 ° 24' 13.4" E |
| Purpose: | Roman Catholic service |
| Website: | www.stnicholas.cz |
The St. Nicholas Church (Czech: chrám svatého Mikuláše , or kostel svatého Mikuláše ) stands together with the adjoining former Jesuit college in the middle of the Lesser Town Ring in the Czech capital Prague . The monumental building is one of the most important baroque church buildings in Europe.
history
In the middle of the Lesser Quarter Ring, a Gothic parish church of St. Nicholas . With the beginning of re-Catholicization after the victory of the Catholic Habsburgs in the Battle of the White Mountain , the previously utraquist church and the neighboring buildings were handed over to the Jesuits in 1625 . After demolishing the existing buildings, they erected a large building complex, the Jesuit College, in the middle of the Lesser Quarter in the second half of the 17th century .
The foundation stone for the new Nikolauskirche, which is adjacent to the Jesuit College, was laid as early as 1673, but the Jesuits did not start construction until 30 years later. The construction was made possible mainly by a large donation from Václav Libštejnský from the noble family of the Counts of Kolowrat , who donated all of his fortune to the construction of the new church before he entered the order.
Under the direction of Christoph Dientzenhofer , the west portal, the vault of the main nave and the side chapels of St. Barbara and St. Anna. His son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer created the presbytery between 1737 and 1752 and finished his masterpiece shortly before his death - the 70 meter high dome. The construction was completed by Anselmo Lurago in the years 1751–1755 with the construction of the bell tower. The church was consecrated in 1752, but work on its decoration continued until the 1760s.
The monumental building has a footprint of 40 × 60 meters. The two towers - the dome (with the flag) and the bell tower - have the same height of 79 meters. The massive copper-covered dome has an outer diameter of 20 meters. It is 50 meters high inside and 70 meters outside and forms the highest interior space of a building in Prague.
After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1775, the Nikolauskirche became the Catholic parish church of the Lesser Town. It was extensively restored between 1984 and 1989. In addition to the regular church services, the church is often used for concerts. The bell tower served as a watchtower until 1891 , from which the guards reported fires or approaching enemies. In the years 1950–1989 agents of the communist secret service used the tower to monitor surrounding embassies of western countries. The tower has been open to visitors since 2010, the gallery at 65 meters (299 steps) offers a wonderful view over the roofs of the Lesser Town.
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The magnificent interior represents a high point of baroque art and should symbolize the power of the Catholic Church. Numerous well-known artists were involved in its equipment. The huge ceiling fresco Glorification of St. Nicholas by Johann Lucas Kracker is one of the largest paintings in Europe with an area of 1500 square meters. The dome is adorned with the fresco Die Heilige Dreifaltigkeit (The Holy Trinity) , a work by Franz Xaver Palko , underneath there are monumental statues of four church doctors by Ignaz Franz Platzer .
The main altar with the gilded statue of St. Nicholas is the largest baroque altar in Prague. The statue, like most of the other altar statues in the church, is the work of Ignaz Franz Platzer. The larger than life statues of the saints on the pillars of the nave are also made by him. The pulpit is covered with artificial marble. It is adorned with an allegorical representation of faith, love and hope. Another group of statues represents the beheading of John the Baptist . They are the work of Richard and Peter Prachner.
To the left of the entrance, in the chapel of St. Barbara , there are two wooden altars: Altar of St. Cross with the image of The Crucifixion by Karel Škréta , and the altar of St. Barbara with carvings by Peter Prachner. Karel Škréta also made the most valuable pictures in the church, the ten-part Passion Cycle in the gallery, which presumably comes from the neighboring Jesuit college. A copy of the statue of the Virgin Mary of Foyen is housed in a glazed shrine in a side altar to the left of the main altar . It is the oldest statue in the church, brought by the Jesuits from Belgium in 1629.
Tomas Schwarz built the baroque organ in the years 1745–1747. It has over 4000 pipes with a length of up to 6 meters. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played on this organ during his stay in Prague in 1787.
literature
- Ivan Muchka: St. Nicholas Church on the Lesser Town in Prague . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 1995.
- Mojmir Horyna: The St. Niklas Church on the Lesser Town in Prague and its importance for the Central European church architecture of the first third of the 18th century. In: Bohemia Jesuitica . Prague 2010, ISBN 978-3-429-03268-5 , pp. 1311-1325 .
- Helmut Zeller, Eva Gruberová: CityTrip-plus Prague . Reise Know-How, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8317-2633-2 , p. 177-180 (312 pp.).
- František Ekert: Posvátná místa král. St. města Prahy. Svazek I. Dědictví sv. Jana Nepomuckého, Praha 1883 (Czech, online ). Chapter 1: Hlavní farní chrám sv. Mikuláše , pp. 167-185. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
See also
Web links
- st nicholas church lesser town on the city of Prague tourism portal . Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- History of the Church , Vladimír Kelnar, March 16, 2012, on the official website of the St. Nicholas Church (English and Czech). Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- St. Nicholas Church, Lesser Town on AViewOnCities, Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- church-of-st-nicholas on kralovskacesta.cz (English and Czech). Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- belfry-of-the-church-of-st-nicholas on kralovskacesta.cz (English and Czech). Retrieved October 22, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ^ Václav Koláček: Václav Kolowrat . Refugium Velehrad-Roma, Velehrad 2000, ISBN 80-86045-46-3 , p. 6-16, 200 (Czech, 203 pp.).
- ↑ a b History of the Church , Vladimír Kelnar, March 16, 2012, on the official website of the Nikolauskirche (English and Czech). Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- ↑ Ve věži chrámu sv. Mikuláše byla zpřístupněna pozorovatelna StB , Novinky.cs, April 17, 2010 (Czech). Retrieved October 20, 2019.