Top 10 intriguing facts about St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral. Photo by JohnCayne. Wikimedia Commons.

Top 10 intriguing facts about St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic located in Cathedral in Prague, Czech.  Its construction began on the 3rd of November 1344 and is 97m.

The cathedral is situated entirely within the Prague Castle complex. Its architecture is prominently Gothic.

Other than religious services the cathedral also hosts coronations of Czech kings and queens. It is the burial place of several patron saints, sovereigns, noblemen, and archbishops.

The metropolitan cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The Gothic cathedral is a spiritual symbol of the Czech state.

It took nearly 600 years to finish being constructed and is a vital part of the history of Prague castle. It was completed in 1929 and has been active since.

Here are 10 intriguing facts about St. Vitus Cathedral:

1. Up until 1997 the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus

St. Vitus was a Christian martyr from Sicily and widely venerated as the patron saint of epilepsy. He was a legendary ecclesiastical leader that influenced millions of people.

The cathedral was dedicated to his life and works and was named after him in his honor.

In 1997, the church was re-dedicated to Saint Wenceslaus and Saint Adalbert. This occurred on the 1000th anniversary of the death of Saint Adalbert.

Saint Adalbert was a Bohemian missionary, Christian, saint, and the Bishop of Prague.

He was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity.

2. The cathedral is the largest and the most important temple in Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral. Photo by MathKnight Flag-of-Israel(boxed).png and Zachi Evenor. Wikimedia Commons.

St. Vitus Cathedral was created for religious services and coronations of Czech kings and queens. The construction took nearly 600 years and was founded in 930.

The building dominates the city skyline and is one of the oldest cathedrals in Prague built in the Ecclesiastical province of Bohemia.

  The cathedral occupies 407 ft. by 197 with the main tower 337 ft. high, the front towers 269 ft, and the arch height 109 ft.

The cathedral’s massive halls allow a great number of visitors and serve as tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors.

3. It was commissioned by Charles IV

Charles IV was the first King of Bohemia that became the Holy Roman Emperor.

Due to his relation as a member of the Bohemian House of Přemyslid from his mother’s side, he emphasized his lifelong affinity for the Bohemian side of his inheritance.

His direct ancestors in the Přemyslid line including two saints also influenced his emphasis.

He commissioned St. Vitus Cathedral was commissioned by Charles IV and its construction began in 1344 on the site of an earlier 10th-century rotunda.

The gothic masterpiece was constructed with a ring of chapels.

The first architects, Matthias of Arras and later Peter Parler constructed St. Wenceslas Chapel, the Golden Portal, and the lower section of the main steeple.

4. The St. Vitus Cathedral has two organ casings

St. Vitus has two organ casings that set it apart from the rest. The First organ is located in the upper façade.

It was built in 1765 by Anton GartnerIt and belongs to a baroque organ. Its case is purely decorative and has had 40 stops on 3 manuals and pedals.

The second organ is the present main organ in the lower neoclassical casing. It was built by Josef Melzel during the period 1929– 1931.

  After which a general overhaul was carried out by Brachtl a Kánský the organ builder for three years.

The modest instrument is purely pneumatic in relation to the large church space and has 58 stops on 3 manuals and pedals, 4,475 pipes in total.

In addition, there is a large number of basic pipes and little reeds. the instruments have a rather gentle tone a typical feature of post-Romantic organs.

5. The church was founded by Wenceslaus I

Wenceslaus I was a martyr and Duke of Bohemia in 930.  Popular several biographies gave rise to his reputation for heroic virtue.

This elevated him to sainthood as a result. He was posthumously declared to be a king and became subject to the well-known carol for Saint Stephen’s Day Good King Wenceslas.

He is to be seen as the patron saint of the Czech state. Wenceslaus I founded the first church Romanesque rotunda.

Wenceslaus had acquired a holy relic which was the arm of St. Vitus from Emperor Henry I for the church hence the church was dedicated to the Saint.

Arguably Wenceslaus, wanting to convert his subjects to Christianity more easily, chose a saint whose name sounds very much like the name of the Slavic solar deity Svantevit.

6. The Cathedral has had a tremendous influence on the development of the Late Gothic style

St. Vitus Cathedral. Photo by 投稿者. Wikimedia Commons.

The Cathedral has had a massive impact on the gothic style of the Czech Republic.

The Parler workshop and family designed numerous churches and buildings across Central Europe and net vaults that have piqued interest.

The Late Gothic style of Central Europe is characterized by ornate and extraordinary vaulting.

This was started by Parler’s design of the vaulting system for the choir of St. Vitus Cathedral.

The cathedral also displays another gothic style which is the Perpendicular Style of English Gothic.

Speculation for what influenced this design was that Parler might have traveled to England at some point in his life, studying the great English Gothic cathedrals.

Although the Perpendicular style and the use of truly extravagant vaults in English Gothic began at the very end of the 14th century meaning it’s a possibility that it was St. Vitus Cathedral of Prague that influenced the development of English Gothic.

7. The Chapel of St. Wenceslaus houses relics of the saint

 St. Wenceslaus chapel holds relics of saint Wenceslaus. It was constructed by Peter Parler between 1356 and 1364 with a ribbed vault.

The wall’s lower portions are decorated with semi-precious stones and paintings depicting the Passion of Christ.

The upper area has paintings depicting the life of St. Wenceslaus by the Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece.

Above the altar, there is a Gothic statue of St. Wenceslaus created in 1373 by Jindřich Parler.

In addition, in the southwest corner of the chapel, a small door with seven locks leads to the Crown Chamber containing the Bohemian Coronation Jewels.

8. The intricate interior architecture was designed during the 1920s

St. Vitus Cathedral. Photo by Jerzy Strzelecki. Wikimedia Commons.

Vojtěch Sucharda was a Czech sculptor, woodcarver, and puppeteer who worked on the façade of the Museum.

Alfons Mucha the famous Czech Art Nouveau painter illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period designed and decorated the new windows in the north part of the nave.

Frantisek Kysela designed the rose window which depicts scenes from the Biblical story of creation.

Apart from the dominant Neo-Gothic style much of the design and elements used in the restoration developed by Parler gave the Cathedral as a whole a harmonious, unified look.

9. The cathedral took a really long time before it was finished

St. Vitus Cathedral. Photo by Øyvind Holmstad. Wikimedia Commons.

 The cathedral has broken the record as the longest church to be developed. St. Vitus Cathedral took an incredible nearly 600 years to be completed fully.

The progress of the cathedral work slowed down because the Emperor commissioned Parler with many other projects.

The architect had to build the new Charles Bridge in Prague and many churches throughout the Czech realm.

When Parler died in 1399 only the choir and parts of the transept were finished and a new architect had to take his place

10. There is controversy about ownership of the cathedral and related canonry houses

The cathedral’s control and ownership have been a source of conflict for a long time.

A government decree entrusted the whole of Prague Castle into ownership of all Czechoslovak people and into the administration of the President’s Office in 1954.

In June 2006, the City Court in Prague decided owners of the cathedral is the Metropolitan Chapter at Saint Vitus.

In September 2007, the District Court of Prague 7 decided that the cathedral is owned by the Czech Republic and after 5 years a bill was passed to compensate the churches for property seized by the Communist government.