Church of Our Lady of the Snows Prague

As already mentioned, the Church of Our Lady of the Snows was founded by Charles IV. This happened in 1347 for the purpose of building a monastic shrine of the Carmelites and especially the coronation church. The original intention was to build a church of even larger dimensions than the current ones. The height of the nave was to be 40 m and the length to be a total of 100 m, however, in the end the original plans came to an end and only a monastery and presbytery were built.

During the Hussite wars, the church was severely damaged and gradually fell into disrepair, even the Gothic vault of the main nave fell. During the Hussite period, Jan Želivský also worked in this church.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the new owners of the whole area became barefoot Franciscans, who began to repair it. An entrance extension with a chancel was built and, above all, the vault was repaired, which was replaced by a Renaissance structure. The adjacent monastery was then renovated in the Baroque style. The original Gothic masonry has been preserved to this day only in the chapel of St. John of Nepomuk and the Virgin Mary.

The total height of the church is 31.5 m, which makes it one of the highest church monuments in Prague.

The interior of the church boasts one of the largest altars in Prague. The height of the early Baroque column altar is a respectable 29 m and bears a seven-meter cross with statues of the Virgin Mary and St. Jana. It was created between 1649 and 1651 by an unknown artist. In the central part of the altar is a painting depicting a legend concerning the attribute "snowy".

The left side altar is decorated with a Baroque painting with the motif of the Annunciation, authored by Václav Vavřinec Reiner.

Author: Andrea Štyndlová