Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Church of Our Lady Victorious (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné), Mala Strana, Prague

I have returned from an enjoyable week spent in Prague, with one excursion, which hopefully you will enjoy sharing with me. I shall take my time in sending messages over the coming days (maybe weeks!) as I enjoy the experience of revisiting these churches again for myself and discover some of their history online at the same time.
This was the first church visited, originally built for German Lutherans 1611-3 and the first baroque church in Prague. Given to the Carmelites in 1624 (as Prague returned to Catholicism) it was re-orientated and altered 1636-44. This explains why the bell tower is oddly placed to the back of the church. The facade towards the main street was built in 1664. I was surprised how many people were visiting this church until I realised that the side altar has the celebrated wax image of Jesus, the "Holy Infant of Prague". A museum displays many of the more valuable outfits (there are some 380 in total sent from around the world) in which the figure is dressed by the nuns. He was sporting a fetching turquoise number for my visit. The pope came here quite recently too to pray at this altar.

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