Katedrála Sv. Víta - St. Vitas Cathedral
The Gothic resting place of saints including Vitas, Wenceslas and Adalbert as well as the state treasury. The cathedral is now known by a much longer name of "The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitas, Wenceslas and Adalbert" although it often goes by the common name St. Vitas Cathedral.
This gothic structure is the biggest and most important in Czech Republic. In addition to the saints it houses the remains of Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors.
The dark blue that you see in the windows is a reflection of today's intense blue sky.
Karl: The first church was a Romanesque rotunda founded in 930. The patron saint Vitas was chosen because Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia had acquired a holy relic (the arm of St. Vitas!) from Emperor Henry I
This cathedral took a lot of time to build and went through many periods.
930 - first Romanesque rotunda
1060 - bishopric of Prague founded and a larger church was needed. Architecture leaned toward Romanesque.
1344 - Gothic appearance when bishopric raised to an archbishopric. Work continued until ...
15th century when the Hussite's invaded, war, destruction, burning...
money problems...tried to finish with Renaissance and Baroque elements added...more money problems.
1844 - work is started including cleanup and west facades done...work continued
1920s - Vojtēch Sucharda worked on the facade and Alfons Mucha (my favorite!!!) worked on the windows in the north part of the nave.
1929 - WORK IS FINISHED after 600 years.
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