St Vitus's Cathedral (Katedrala svateho Vita) - Prague - TravBuddy

On a hot day we hiked to Prague Castle and decided to tour the Cathedral. There was a line went around the building but it moved fast enough. Once we got inside there is a route that will take you around. The middle of the Cathedral was roped off.

Among the points of interest around the route I found the tomb of St. John Nepomuk to be particularly elaborate and impressive with the amount of silver and craftsmanship that was involved in the making.

There are also stairs to the crypt where Charles IV is buried but it was off limits when I was there August 2007.

Overall I was impressed with the cathedral and its vaulting and stained glass windows. It was definitely the highlight touring the Prague Castle grounds

Finished in only 1929 St Vitus’s Cathedral stands on the site of a chapel founded in 925. Work on the present day cathedral started in 1344 by Matthias of Arras. This cathedral is one of the most breath taking feats of architectural engineering I have ever seen, far superior to most present day buildings. The baroque artwork I found was hard to distinguish between magnificent and just down right hideous. The sheer amount of gold inside, again, awe inspiring or tacky? I just couldn’t make up my mind. If your thinking of going to the cathedral look out for a few things; first is The Golden Portal, which houses a mosaic of the Last Judgement from 1370. Second, Mucha’s portrait in stain glass of the saints Cyril and Methodius. Thirdly, keep your eyes peeled for the jasper and amethyst in the lower walls, the oldest part of the church. I am not one for visiting copious amounts of churches. Infact, im ashamed to say it but I feel once you have seen one church you have seen them all, but the sheer scale on which everything is done in the cathedral blew my mind and I would strongly recommend seeing it for yourself just once in your life time.

One tip however, get there early before all the tour groups start at 10, the queue was 300 strong when we arrived so we decided to come back earlier on another day.