Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the World
(1921). Another great window is Max Švabinský's
Day of Judgement
from 1939,
which stars theArchangel Michael ingreen,jewel-encrusted armourbrandishing ablood-red
sword. Portraits of various Czech rulers feature among the chosen ones; the damned, mean-
while, are being thrown headlong into Hell's lava flow.
Inkeepingwithitssecularnature,twooftheworksfromthetimeoftheFirstRepublicwere
paid for by financial institutions. The
Cyril and Methodius
window, in the third chapel in the
north wall, was commissioned from Art Nouveau artist
Alfons Mucha
by the Banka Slavie,
while on the opposite side of the nave, the window
Those Who Sow in Tears Shall Reap in
Joy
was sponsored by a Prague insurance company.
One of the most striking later additions to the cathedral is František Bílek's
wooden altar
,
in the north aisle; its anguished portrait of Christ on the cross breaks free of the neo-Gothic
strictures that hamper other works inside.
The chancel
There's a one-way system in the
chancel
, so head off to the north choir aisle. Following the
ambulatoryround,makesureyoucheckoutthehigh-reliefseventeenth-century woodenpan-
elling between the arcading on the right, which glories in the flight of the “Winter King”,
Frederick of the Palatinate (he's depicted crossing the Charles Bridge), following the disas-
trous Battle of Bílá hora in 1620. The remains of various early Czech rulers are scattered
throughout the side chapels, most notably those of Přemysl Otakar I and II, in the Saxon
Chapel (the fifth one along), whose limestone tombs are the work of Peter Parler and his
workshop; you can also pay your respects to Rudolf II's internal organs, buried in the chapel
vault.
Causing a tourist traffic jam slap bang in the middle of the ambulatory, close to the Saxon
Chapel, is the perfect Baroque answer to the medieval chapel of sv Václav, the
Tomb of sv
JanofNepomuk
,plonkedherein1736.It'saworkofgrotesqueexcess,designedbyJohann
Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's son, Johann Michael, and sculpted in solid silver with free-
flying angels holding up the heavy drapery of the baldachin. On the lid of the tomb, back-to-
backwith
JanofNepomuk
himself,acherubpointstothemartyr'sseveredtongue.Thetomb
of St Adalbert (sv Vojtěch), one of the four patron saints of Bohemia, lies in humble contrast
opposite.
Between the tomb of sv Jan of Nepomuk and the chapel of sv Václav, Bohemia's one and
only Polish ruler, Vladislav Jagiello, built a
Royal Oratory
, connected to his bedroom in
the royal palace by a covered bridge. The balustrade sports heraldic shields from Bohemia's
(at the time) quite considerable lands, while the hanging vault is smothered in an unusual
branch-like decoration, courtesy of Benedikt Ried, the German mason appointed by Vladis-
lav Jagiello as his court architect. To the left, the statue of a miner is a reminder of just how
important Kutná Hora's silver mines were in funding such artistic ventures.
