★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
St. Vitus Cathedral
Did you know there's a REAL HUMAN TONGUE hidden inside this cathedral that's over 600 years old? Ewww, right? Look up at those pointy towers reaching 96 meters high - that's like stacking 32 giraffes on top of each other! This Gothic giant took almost 600 years to finish... imagine starting a LEGO castle when knights were real and only finishing it when your great-great-great-grandkids had smartphones! Before you step through those massive doors, count the gargoyles sticking their tongues out at you - there are 96 of them, and each one has a different silly face! Inside, you'll find the tomb of Good King Wenceslas with walls covered in 1,300 semi-precious stones. But here's the coolest secret: find the golden door with seven locks - it leads to a crown room where they keep jewels so heavy, it takes TWO people to lift the crown! Can you spot the window that took 20 years to make? It has 27,000 pieces of colored glass - that's more pieces than in 50 jigsaw puzzles combined!
Did You Know?
- St. Vitus Cathedral took nearly 600 years to complete—construction began in 1344 under King Charles IV, inspired by French cathedrals, but wasn't finished until 1929, making it a unique blend of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles due to centuries of evolving architectural visions.
- The cathedral’s gargoyles are one-of-a-kind: sculpted by different artists, no two are alike, and locals joke that the grotesque faces were inspired by their in-laws—these stone monsters serve as both rainwater drains and a playful nod to Czech humor.
- St. Vitus Cathedral is the final resting place of Czech kings, Holy Roman Emperors, and the patron saint Wenceslaus, whose ornate chapel houses his tomb and is decorated with over 1,300 semi-precious stones and stunning frescoes depicting his life—a hidden gem of art and devotion within the cathedral.