St. Vitus Cathedral - Prague, Czech Republic
N 50° 05.437 E 014° 24.025
33U E 457110 N 5548878
Saint Vitus's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague.
Waymark Code: WM2DQG
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 10/17/2007
Views: 347
The present day Gothic Cathedral was founded on 21st of November, 1344, when the Prague bishopric was raised to an archbishopric. Its patrons were the chapter of cathedral (led by a Dean), the Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice, and, above all, Charles IV, King of Bohemia and a soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, who intended the new cathedral to be a coronation church, family crypt, treasury for the most precious relics of the kingdom, and the last resting place cum pilgrimage site of patron saint Wenceslaus. The first master builder was a Frenchman Matthias of Arras, summoned from the papal palace in Avignon. Matthias designed the overall layout of the building as, basically, an import of French Gothic: a triple-naved basilica with flying buttresses, short transept, five-bayed choir and decagon apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. However, he lived to build only the easternmost parts of the choir: the arcades and the ambulatory. The slender verticality of Late French Gothic and clear, almost rigid respect of proportions distinguish his work today.
Address:
Praha 1 - Hradcany
Prague, Czech Republic
119 00
Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic
Date founded or constructed: 1344/01/01
Web site: [Web Link]
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