Church of Our Lady of the Snow in Prague, Gothic church at Jungmann Square, Prague, Czech Republic
The Church of Our Lady of the Snow is a Gothic church on Jungmann Square whose tall stone presbytery, with a Renaissance net vault painted with stars, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity and saints, reaches 31.5 metres. Its white plastered facade has seven tall pointed windows, a red tiled roof and a small dark cupola, and a mosaic of Our Lady of the Snow by Viktor Foerster sits above the Renaissance portal.
King Charles IV founded the building in 1347 as an offering for his coronation, originally planning an enormous structure with two towers. Construction was later simplified, and only the choir portion was eventually completed.
The church honors an ancient Roman tale where the Virgin Mary appeared in dreams to a priest and a matron, commanding them to build a sanctuary at this location. Religious paintings inside the building illustrate this story.
The northern aisle is reached from the eastern corner of Jungmann Square through a gate that once led to the cemetery behind the church. The Gothic presbytery serves as the Franciscan church today. Look for the surviving tower-wall fragments and spiral staircase in the westernmost corner of the northern aisle.
The tympanum above the northern aisle gate, carved with the Throne of Divine Wisdom, was made for a portal that was never built. Two kneeling donors at its base lost their heads, leaving their identity debated; their shields show the Bohemian double-tailed lion and the Moravian chequered eagle.
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