A new ecclesiastical role
In April 1344, Pope Clement VI approved the creation of the Prague archbishopric. On 21 November, King John of Luxembourg laid the foundation stone of a new Cathedral, with his son Charles present. Charles was not yet King of Bohemia: describing the foundation simply as an act of “Emperor Charles IV” misses the chronology.
Earlier churches beneath the story
The new project replaced a Romanesque basilica begun in 1060, itself the successor to Prince Wenceslas’s tenth-century rotunda. The site was already a centre of worship before Gothic construction started.
An ambition fulfilled much later
Matthias of Arras and Peter Parler shaped the early building. Work stopped during the Hussite period, and completion eventually came in 1929. The long interval explains why medieval and modern craftsmanship coexist within the same church.
Continue inside
The Cathedral guide follows that story through chapels, royal burials and stained glass. Its greatest reward is not just scale, but the opportunity to compare several centuries of building in one place.