Merry Christmas

Posted by frankb on Dec 18, 2011 in Creative Photography Blog | 2 comments

May The Peace of

The Christmas Season

be with with you throughout

the year.

Merry Christmas!

 

About the photograph: (Taken in March, 2009)

St. Nicholas Cathedral (Chram sv. Mikulase) from the Lesser Quarter in Prague has put its name into Czech and European Baroque era and is now Prague number one church of this kind. Its history is linked to Czech re-catholisation process that followed the defeat of the Hussites in the Battle of the White Mountain (1620).

The beginnings of the imposing Cathedral that we see today go back to the year 1283, when the place of worship started its existence as a parish church under the name and protection of St. Nicholas. With the change of authority in the 17^th century, Baroque era began also for the Lesser Quarter and its buildings. In 1702 Kryštof Dientzenhofer himself designed the plans for the new Prague Baroque pearl. After his death it was his son, the famous Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, who completed the work and designed unique vault and robust dome that later became one of the Prague’s main landmarks. Another of his masterpieces is St. Nicholas Church in the Old Town Square, decorated with a superb crystal glass candelabra.

The Cathedral was added two new wings, Chapel of St. Barbara on the left of the entrance and Chapel of St. Anne on the right. The whole construction was finished in 1752 with the 80 meters high bell-tower, modified by Anselmo Lurago. Both the greenish Dome and Bell Tower are now symbols of Prague and most prominent figures of the Lesser Quarter.

Concerts are held here all over the year, after all, who would resist not listening to the Organ at wich played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in person, while he lived in Prague.

The  Chapel of St. Anne (This in on the card)  houses the late Baroque altar of St. Anne dating back to 1771. This altar carries a painting called The Royal Family with St. Anne [Sv. rodiny se sv. Annou], also previously placed in the original Church. An unknown painter in about the 1670′s painted it.