Church of Saint Nicholas, Baroque church in Old Town, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint Nicholas is a Baroque church on Old Town Square, built 1732–1737 to a design by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. Its pale beige facade has two towers, the taller topped by a green onion dome and gold cross, and a red-tiled apse with a clock. Inside, an oval dome carries white-and-gold stucco scrollwork and dark-framed oval paintings.
The current structure replaced a Gothic basilica in 1737, designed by architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer during the Czech Baroque period. This construction marked a shift toward new artistic and religious expression in Prague.
Since 1920 the church has been the main seat of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, proclaimed here on 11 January 1920 with Karel Farský as its first bishop; a plaque inside recalls the event. Before that it served Czech and mainly Russian Orthodox believers from 1870 to 1914, and the whitewashed Asam frescoes were later restored.
The church stands on the east side of Old Town Square, its side facade facing the square after the Baroque prelature and Krenn House were demolished during the clearing of the old town. The entrance is through the quasi-Baroque portal on the south facade, added by Rudolf Kříženecký in 1904. Services of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church still take place inside.
The 1,400 kg brass chandelier in the shape of a tsar's crown, with a four-sided crystal cross hanging from it, was given in 1880 by Russian Tsar Alexander II; it was made at the Harrachov glassworks. The church was rented for Orthodox worship in 1871 at the request of Count Pyotr Arkadyevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov.
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