St. Michael's Church in Jircháře, Evangelical church in New Town, Prague, Czech Republic

St. Michael's Church in Jircháře is built of rubble masonry as an asymmetric three-nave church, its ground plan dictated by medieval streets. The central nave has two bays of cross vaults on double-fluted stone ribs with round keystones, carried by massive stone columns with gilded Corinthian capitals from the late 14th century.

A Romanesque church stood here from the 12th century; it was demolished and replaced by a Gothic building in 1369, with a north aisle added in 1387 and a south aisle before 1402. Protestants administered it until 1621, when it passed to Catholic control. After a fire in 1717 it was baroquised, the tower rebuilt in 1722.

The church has been the seat of Czech, Slovak and English congregations of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession since the German Protestant congregation bought it in 1791. The vault bosses in the northern aisle carry the emblem of the tanners' guild, after whom the street v Jirchářích is named.

The church stands on V Jirchářích street in Prague's New Town, a short walk from the National Theatre. The building is hemmed in by streets on several sides, so the entrance and the asymmetric three-nave layout are best seen from the lane itself.

The church owes its name to the Jircháře district, whose name recalls the tanners (jircháři) who worked in this part of the New Town. Inside, the vault bosses of the northern aisle carry the tanners' guild coat of arms, a detail easy to miss overhead.