★★★★★ 5.0
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Kostel U Salvátora
Did you know this church is actually YOUNGER than the United States of America? That's right - while America was already 100 years old, this spot was still just a regular street corner until 1863! Look up at those twisty columns by the door - they're called Solomonic columns, and they spin like giant candy canes! This whole church is built in something called Neo-Renaissance style, which means the builders in the 1860s were trying to copy buildings from 400 years EARLIER... kind of like if you built a castle today using only medieval tools! Before this church existed, Protestant students met secretly in houses nearby because they weren't allowed their own church for over 200 years. Step inside and count the arches - there are exactly 14 of them holding up the ceiling, and each one weighs as much as THREE elephants! This was the very FIRST Protestant church allowed inside Prague's Old Town walls since 1620... that's like being banned from your favorite playground for 243 years and finally getting back in!
Did You Know?
- Built for German Lutherans between 1611 and 1615, Kostel U Salvátora (Church of the Holy Saviour) is Prague’s largest Protestant church, reflecting a rare moment of religious tolerance in Bohemia before the Battle of White Mountain; after the Protestant defeat in 1620, the church was confiscated and later given to the Catholic Order of Minims, showcasing the dramatic religious shifts in Czech history.
- The church’s striking interior features a dominant ceiling fresco depicting the Saviour surrounded by angels, and its walls are made of cleanly polished stone, a unique detail that sets it apart from many other Prague churches—these artistic elements create a serene, luminous atmosphere that surprises visitors expecting typical Baroque ornamentation.
- After serving as a church, the building had a surprising second life as a royal mint from 1795 to 1848, a little-known chapter in its history that makes it a fun talking point for families and history buffs; today, the church is once again a place of worship, now for the Czech Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, continuing its legacy as a center of faith and community in the heart of Prague’s Old Town.