Church of Saint James the Greater, Baroque church in Praha-Zbraslav, Czech Republic
The Church of Saint James the Greater is a church in Praha-Zbraslav, originally Gothic and rebuilt in early Baroque style in the mid-17th century. It was consecrated in 1654. Inside, the south aisle altar holds a copy of the Zbraslav Madonna, a mid-14th-century panel painting on beech wood; the presbytery entrance is flanked by a monument to Přemysl the Ploughman by Jan Štursa and Pavel Janák.
A chapel of St James already stood at Zbraslav when the Cistercian convent arrived after Václav II founded the monastery in 1291, and it temporarily served as the royal necropolis. The abbey declined after the Přemyslid burial site moved to St Vitus Cathedral and was damaged by the Hussites and Swedish troops. After the Thirty Years' War the monastery recovered, and in 1654 the rebuilt early Baroque abbey church of St James was consecrated.
The church is open to the public during regular services. Its furnishings include a copy of the Zbraslav Madonna on the altar of the south aisle, alongside paintings by Karel Škréta and Petr Brandl.
The church is open to the public during regular services; there is no separate visitor entrance, so access follows the Mass times. The Přemyslid royal remains lie in a grave in the floor by the entrance to the presbytery, where visitors stop. The building has been a national cultural monument since 1995.
The church holds the remains of the last Přemyslid kings, identified in the late 19th century by anthropologist Emanuel Vlček as Wenceslaus II, his mother Elisabeth Přemyslovna and probably one of her twin daughters. On 23 June 1991 they were solemnly reburied in a grave in the floor by the entrance to the presbytery.
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