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Church of Our Lady before Týn
Those two Gothic spires piercing the sky above you aren't twins at all – the north tower is actually one meter wider than its southern sister, a medieval builder's trick to create perfect visual harmony when viewed from Old Town Square. Before this stone giant rose in 1365, a humble Romanesque merchant church stood here, where foreign traders would pray for safe journeys home. Look closely at that golden chalice gleaming between the towers... it's actually UPSIDE DOWN, placed there in 1623 as a symbol of the defeated Protestant rebellion. The Catholic victors wanted everyone to know who controlled Prague's skyline now. Step through those massive doors and prepare yourself – you're about to stand where astronomer Tycho Brahe took his final breath in 1601, his tomb marked by that red marble slab near the altar. Above you soars the highest church interior in all of Prague, stretching 44 meters into darkness. That baroque altarpiece ahead? It took Karel Škréta twelve years to paint, finishing it completely blind in his final months. Your eyes will find 19 altars hidden in these shadows, but here's what most visitors miss... whisper a word near the north wall, and someone standing by the south wall, 30 meters away, will hear you perfectly. Medieval acoustics or divine design? The builders took that secret to their graves.
Did You Know?
- The Church of Our Lady before Týn was once the spiritual heart of the Hussite movement—a major Czech religious reform group—and for two centuries, its gable featured a giant golden chalice, the Hussite symbol, which was later melted down and recast into a sculpture of the Virgin Mary after the Catholic victory at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620.
- The church’s two iconic towers, nicknamed 'Adam and Eve,' are intentionally not the same height; legend says this was to avoid the sin of vanity in trying to create perfect symmetry, making them a unique architectural feature in Prague’s skyline.
- Beneath the church’s grand altar lies the tomb of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who spent his final years in Prague under the patronage of Emperor Rudolf II, adding a touch of scientific history to this Gothic masterpiece.