Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
on the right as you enter, is a thoroughly decomposed human forearm (it looks like a piece of
oldropehangingfromachain).Ithasbeenthereformorethanfourhundredyears,eversince
a thief tried to steal the jewels of the Madonna from the high altar. As the thief reached out,
the Virgin supposedly grabbed his arm and refused to let go. The next day the congregation
of butchers had no option but to lop it off, and it has hung there as a warning ever since.
Anežský klášter (Convent of St Agnes) - Medieval art
U Milosrdných 17 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • 150Kč • 221 879 216,
ngprague.cz
• Tram #5, #8, #24 or #26
to Dlouhá třída
North of sv Jakub through the backstreets, the
Anežský klášter
, Prague's oldest surviving
Gothicbuilding,standswithinastone'sthrowoftheriverasitloopsaroundtotheeast.Itwas
foundedin1233asaFranciscan convent,andtakesitsnamefromAnežka(Agnes),youngest
daughterofPřemyslOtakarI,wholeftherlifeofregalprivilegetobecometheconvent'sfirst
abbess. Anežka took her vows seriously, living on a diet of raw onions and fruit with long
periods of fasting, and in 1874 she was beatified to try and combat the spread of Hussitism
among the Czechs. There was much speculation about the wonders that would occur when
shewasofficially canonized, aneventwhichfinallytookplaceonNovember12,1989,when
Czech Catholics were invited to a special Mass at St Peter's in Rome. Four days later the
Velvet Revolution began: a happy coincidence, even for agnostic Czechs.
Theconventitselfhasenjoyedachequeredhistory.ItwasusedasanarsenalbytheHussites,
andeventuallycloseddownin1782byJosephII,whoturneditintoaplacewherethePrague
poor could live and set up their own workshops. The whole neighbourhood remained a slum
area until well into the twentieth century, and its restoration only finally took place in the
1980s.
The convent now provides a fittingly atmospheric setting for the
NationalGallery'smedi-
eval art collection
, in particular the art that flourished under the patronage of Charles IV.
Medieval art collection
The
medieval art
exhibition is arranged chronologically, starting with a remarkable silver-
gilt casket from 1360 used to house the skull of sv Ludmila. The nine panels from the al-
tarpiece of the Cistercian monastery at Vyšší Brod in South Bohemia, from around 1350,
are among the finest in central Europe; the panel depicting the Annunciation is particularly
rich in iconography. The real gems of the collection, however, are the six panels by
Master
Theodoric
,whocreatedmorethanonehundredsuchpaintingsforCharlesIV'scastlechapel
at Karlštejn. These larger-than-life, half-length portraits of saints, Church Fathers and so on
are full of intense expression and rich colour, their depictions spilling onto the embossed
frames.
