Cathedral of St Nicholas, České Budějovice, Catholic cathedral in České Budějovice, Czech Republic.

The Cathedral of St Nicholas is a three-nave baroque church beside the Black Tower in České Budějovice. Its main altar, a wooden structure by Leopold Hueber, dates from 1785 and holds a 1648 oil painting of St Nicholas raising two dead children by the local-born painter J. Bachmann. The two-storey Italianate facade, rebuilt in 1686–1688 with stucco by Santino Cereghetti, is the only surviving early baroque facade in the city.

The foundation stone was laid around 1265, shortly after the city's founding, and the main altar was consecrated in 1297 while the building was still unfinished. A fire in 1641 left only the chancel buttresses standing; the rebuilding by Giovanni Ciprian and Francesco Canevalle in 1641–1649 gave the church its baroque form. In 1785 the interior was adapted when the church became a cathedral with the new Diocese of České Budějovice.

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra, whose early Baroque stucco statue by T. Zeisl stands in a niche on the facade between Saints Wenceslaus and Auratian. The high altar painting of 1648 by J. Bachmann shows Nicholas raising two dead children, and the north aisle holds the altar of Saint Anne (1771) with a reliquary of Saint Auratian, co-patron of České Budějovice.

The cathedral stands just off the northeast corner of Přemysl Otakar II Square, with the Black Tower beside it acting as its bell tower and a statue of Bishop Jan Valerián Jirsík in front. The cemetery that once surrounded it was abolished in 1784, so the church is now reached directly from the square.

The 2010–2012 dig inside the church followed a 2001–2005 excavation by the South Bohemian Museum on the site of the former churchyard, closed by Joseph II's decree in 1784. Together they uncovered a chapel, tombs and graves, and the churchyard wall once carried the Stations of the Cross.