Cathedral of St Vitus
Prague 1-Prague Castle
1344-1420

St Vitus's Cathedral was founded on 21 November 1344 when the bishopric of Prague was raised to an archbishopric. Its patrons were the chapter of the cathedral (led by the Dean), the Archbishop, and, above all, the King of the Czech Lands and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who intended it to be a coronation church, a family crypt, the repository of the most precious relics of the realm, and the resting place of St Wenceslas (patron saint of the Czech Lands) and the saint's family.The first master mason of the cathedral was Matthew of Arras. Charles summoned him to Prague from the papal court of Avignon and Matthew founded a cathedral workshop that began, according to Charles's plans and instructions, to build a cathedral with a choir of five bays and an apse in the form of five sides of a decagon, with an ambulatory and wreath of five-sided chapels crossing over into the long side of the choir. When Matthew died, in 1352, nine arcade pillars of the inner end of the choir were already standing, together with part of the ambulatory and chapels (five radial chapels, two side chapels on the south and the first side chapel on the north in front of the sacristy). In 1352-56, when the workshop was led by the twenty-three-year-old Peter Parler, son of the architect of the Gmünd Cathedral and previously the foreman (parlerius) at Cologne, the Prague workshop continued work according to the designs and drawings of Matthew. Peter Parler completed the two-storey sacristy on the north side and the chapel of the Holy Cross on the south. He then continued according to his own plans and ideas (adapted, of course, to the demands of the patron). The ground floor of the choir all the way to the chancel arch, including the chapel of St Wenceslas and the south porch attached to it, were completed in the late 1360s. (The high altar of St Vitus, in the east part of the choir, and the altar of the Virgin Mary, in the west, were consecrated in 1365; the chapel of St Wenceslas, in 1367; the south porch and chapel of the Trinity in the axis of the choir, were consecrated in 1368). In 1370-71, by order of the Emperor Charles IV, the facade of the porch was decorated with a mosaic of the Last Judgement and, the following year, the interior walls of the Chapel of St Wenceslas were decorated with precious stones and wall paintings. At this time, too, the Parler workshop began construction of the clearstory and the exterior buttresses. In 1373, with Parler's participation, the chancel arch was completed, and, in 1374-75, the lower triforium was built. By 1376 the clearstory walls were erected and work on the buttressing continued. (A rare record of the medieval workshop is provided by the Weekly Accounts for 1372-78.) At the Emperor's command a hierarchical programme was designed, commemorating the past and present of his line (which had been entrusted to the protection of the patron saints of the country). In 1373 the bodily remains of the Přemyslid princes and kings were transferred from the Romanesque basilica at the Castle to the chapels in the east end of the cathedral; effigies were made for the tombs of six of them. (The Saxon Chapel contains the tombs of Přemysl Otakar I and Přemysl Otakar II; the Imperial Chapel, Břetislav I and Spytihněv II; and in the Chapel of St John the Baptist are buried Břetislav II and Bořivoj II.) At the next level above them, in the lintels of the lower-triforium passage, are portrait busts of Charles IV and members of his family. At the top level, the lintels of the upper triforium are carved with idealized portraits of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and SS Wenceslas, Adalbert, Cyril, Methodius, Sigismund, Procopius, and Ludmila. The side walls of the lower triforium were reserved for portraits of the archbishops, the directors of works from the among the canons, and the two master masons; above them, in the upper triforium, were placed symbolic or mythological beasts and mascarons, which serve as corbels. On 12 July 1385 the workshop, during a special mass, completed the vault of the clearstory, which was consecrated on 1 October of that year. The next year, Parler completed the choir stalls. In 1392 King Wenceslas IV, together with Archbishop John of Jenštejn, laid the foundation stone of the nave. In 1396 the remains of St Adalbert were placed in the axis between the first four piers. Of the work of the French master mason Matthew of Arras, eight arcades of the interior of the choir and part of the ambulatory (including the chapels) connected to it have survived. His work seems to be distinguishable from Parler's, by its clear definition, almost severe style, vertical motion, airy forms, and elegant slender proportions. Parler's forms appear to be sculpturally modelled (probably because, unlike the architect-geometrician Matthew, Parler was also a sculptor and woodcarver); they are full of dynamics, inner tension, unexpected twists, and conflict. That is demonstrated by the return to the round "classicizing" forms of the column with the bell-shaped capitals and by Parler's bold vaults with pendant bosses in the sacristy, the ingenious design of the dome vault with the rotating crosses in the chapel of St Wenceslas, and the net vaulting of the choir. Other masterly examples of engineering skill include the open south staircase, which forms the face of the east buttress on the transept (and which changes part way up), the undulating clearstory walls, the intricate window tracery, and the blind tracery panels of the buttresses. Architectural sculpture was given an important role when Parler was in charge of construction, as is evident in the corbels, the passageway lintels and, in particular, the busts in the lower and upper triforia. A number of highly skilled stone-carvers and future master masons were trained in the workshop; they later developed Parler's ideas, opening the way for the Late Gothic for the course of the next century.Peter Parler handed over direction of the workshop to his son Wenzel in 1397. Shortly afterwards, in 1398, Wenzel left for Vienna to work on St Stephen's and the Prague workshop was taken over by another of Parler's sons, Johann. From Johann's death, in 1406, until the Hussite Wars the workshop was run by Master Petrlík, who is mentioned in the written records until the 1440s; he, too, it seems was a member of the large Parler family. While these three master masons were in charge, work on the nave continued and the Great Tower on the south side was completed, including the gable of the south transept, which spans from the tower to the south staircase. Work was severely disrupted by the Hussite Wars and the workshop never fully recovered; at most only some finishing-up work went on. The furnishing of the cathedral, comprising dozens of sculptures and pictures, did not escape the ravages of Hussite iconoclasm. Residents of Prague occupied the Castle, in June 1421, and destroyed a large part of the furnishings. Not until King Vladislav Jagiellon, whose programme continued that of Charles IV's, was there an attempt to complete construction work at the cathedral. This included the decoration of its interior, the building of a royal oratory in one of the choir chapels (see 2.005), initial work on the north tower, the laying of the foundations for more pillars of the nave, and the decoration of the chapel of St Wenceslas with a cycle of wall paintings depicting the life of the saint. Construction work, led by Benedikt Ried, was suddenly cut short owing to a lack of funds and the near total absence of the king, who, in 1490, had accepted the Crown of Hungary and the demand that he should move his seat to Buda. From a description of the damages caused by the great fire of 1541 (written by the chronicler Václav Hájek of Libočany), we can imagine what the Gothic cathedral looked like. The choir was provisionally enclosed by a wall with entrances on the ground floor, thus allowing services to held undisturbed by construction work on the nave. The Great Tower on the south side was built to a height of c. 55 metres, at which point its square shape would later become octagonal. Above the South Porch (or Golden Gate) rose the open window of the transept facade, crowned with an ornate gable. The three-aisled nave, continuing behind the crossing to a length of six piers, was provisionally roofed with timbers and shingles. In this part, called the "Great Church over the Tomb of St Adalbert", the altars had already been consecrated and services were taking place. The fire of 1541, however, entered the Cathedral through the wooden roof, destroying most of the furnishings and causing structural damage to the north tower and the torso of the triple-aisled nave.After several, mostly unsuccessful attempts in subsequent centuries, the cathedral was finally completed in the years 1861-1929.

Architect Matthew of Arras, Peter Parler, Wenceslas and Johann Parlers, Master Petrlík
Patron Charles IV, Archbishop of Prague, Chapter of St Vitus's cathedral
Location Prague 1-Prague Castle, 3rd Courtyard