★★★★★ 5.0
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St. Nicholas Church (Malá Strana)
Did you know that Mozart himself played the organ right here in 1787, just four years before he died? That's like... imagine your favorite pop star performing in THIS exact spot over 200 years ago! Look up at that ENORMOUS dome above you - it's 20 meters wide, which is bigger than TWO school buses parked side by side! Before this church was built, there used to be a tiny medieval church here that was so small, only 50 people could squeeze inside. Now THIS church can fit 1,200 people - that's like your entire school times three! The builders used a super sneaky trick... they painted fake windows on the dome to make it look even BIGGER than it really is. Can you spot which windows are real and which ones are just painted on? I'll give you a hint - there are 12 fake ones up there!
Did You Know?
- The St. Nicholas Church in Malá Strana is the largest Baroque church in Prague and was designed by the famous Dientzenhofer family—father Christoph and son Kilian Ignaz—who are considered the greatest proponents of High Baroque architecture in Prague, though neither lived to see its completion; the project was later finished by Kilian’s son-in-law, Anselmo Lurago, who added the striking 79-meter-tall bell tower, a height matched by the church’s grand dome.
- This church houses one of the largest ceiling frescoes in Central Europe, the 'Apotheosis of St. Nicholas,' painted by Johann Lukas Kracker in 1761, and features additional stunning frescoes by Franz Xaver Palko, including dramatic scenes of the heavens and St. Cecilia above the organ loft; the interior also boasts massive statues of the Eastern Church Fathers and an unusual pulpit depicting the decapitation of St. John the Baptist, rare for church art.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played the church’s 2,500-pipe organ during his visit to Prague, and after his death, his Requiem Mass was performed here, cementing the church’s reputation as a cultural landmark; today, it continues to host classical concerts, and families can climb the bell tower for panoramic views of the city—a fun adventure that also reveals the tower’s secret past as a Communist-era surveillance post.