Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Vojtěch (also St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Audrey ; often abbreviated, according to the original dedication , just St. Vitus Cathedral or St. Vitus Cathedral , possibly St. Vitus Temple or St. Vitus Church) is the most important Czech Roman Catholic church and the dominant feature of Prague Castle . The southern tower of the cathedral (also called the Great Southern Tower of the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Vojtěch ) is, with a height of 96.6 m, the third highest church tower in the Czech Republic . Since the tenth century, the St. Vitus Church has been the seat of the bishop of the Prague Diocese , elevated to an archdiocese in 1344 . On this occasion, the construction of a three-nave Gothic cathedral with three towers was started , but it was interrupted by the Hussite Wars. Despite efforts to complete the building and partial additions (the top of the southern tower), the western part with the nave and two-tower facade was completed only after five hundred years, from 1873 , and was ceremoniously completed in 1929 on the then assumed thousandth anniversary of the death of St. Wenceslas , the founder of the church. The cathedral includes a number of important artistic monuments from different centuries, including the period of completion, the most important are works from the time of the Gothic construction of the cathedral (e.g. the chapel of St. Wenceslas, the mosaic of the Last Judgment and portraits on the triforium ).

History: Rotunda More detailed information can be found in the article Rotunda of St. Vitus . The first church standing on the site of the cathedral was founded by Prince Wenceslaus around 929 . After the churches of the Virgin Mary and St. George the Third Church of Prague was located on an elevated site of the acropolis of the Prague Castle and was dedicated to St. Vitus , the Italian saint , whose relic (arm) was obtained by Prince Wenceslaus from the Duke of Saxony , King of East Francia Henry I Ptáčník . It had the form of a large rotunda , originally apparently with only one apse . Not long after the death of the founder, his remains were placed in the church and thus effectively started the cult of St. Wenceslas. The position of the main church of the principality was confirmed in 973 , when it became the seat church of the newly established bishopric of Prague . After the expedition of Břetislav I to Hnězdno in 1038, the captured remains of St. Vojtěch , the second bishop of Prague. This completed the trio of saints to whom the temple has been dedicated ever since. The original pre-Romanesque rotunda, supplemented with a southern and northern apse, apparently due to the storage of the remains of St. Wenceslas and Vojtěch, it was demolished after 1061 due to inadequate dimensions and replaced by a basilica. However, small fragments are preserved under the chapel of St. Wenceslas, which preserves the original location of Wenceslas' grave. Basilica Břetislav's son and successor of Prince Spytihnev II. had a much larger and more representative Romanesque basilica of St. Vita, Wojtěch and the Virgin Mary. According to the chronicler Kosma, construction was started on the feast of St. Wenceslas in 1060. In 1060, a three-nave basilica with two towers began to grow on the site of the rotunda, and with it the new landmark of Prague Castle. She respected the monastery of the Prague Church (it was actually added to its northern side), the St. Vitus Chapter and the bishop's palace. It was actually a kind of huge superstructure over the holy graves. Shortly after the start of construction, Prince Spytihnev II. he died Spytihněv's brother, Prince Vratislav II, continued the construction . , who became the first Czech king . He himself laid out the floor plan and layout of the building. The basilica had a cross-shaped floor plan, measuring seventy meters in length, thick walls and pillars divided the dark space into three naves. Since the time of the basilica, a unique tradition has been followed: " If the ruler St. Wenceslas was buried in its center, may the Czech kings be not only crowned here, but also buried here in the future!" After the fire that affected the finished work in 1091 , it was finally completed in 1096 . In 1074, the crypt of St. Cosmas and Damian. The three-nave basilica with a pair of apsidal-ended choirs (eastern and western), a transept at the western end and a pair of towers had significantly more monumental dimensions than the previous church - 70 m long and 35 m wide. Its floor plan is well documented; in the underground of the southern part of today's cathedral, the richly decorated columns of the western and eastern crypts, fragments of masonry, paving and supporting columns have been preserved. Construction of the cathedral On April 30, 1344 , Prague was elevated to an archbishopric and exempted from obedience to the Archbishop of Mainz . Six days later, a papal bull granted the Prague archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice the right to crown the Czech king. On November 21, 1344, John of Luxembourg laid the foundation stone of the Cathedral of St. Welcome in connection with the promotion of the bishopric of Prague to an archbishopric, two of the king's sons, Charles IV, were present . and Jan Jindřich , and Prague Archbishop Arnošt from Pardubice. Arnošt had an archbishop's pallium over his shoulders . A large number of prelates and noblemen participated in the ceremony , while the choir sang Te Deum laudamus (We praise You God). The main architect was Matyáš from Arras , who was already 55 years old. He started construction with the eastern chancel so that masses could be celebrated as soon as possible . In the horseshoe-shaped choir, he built eight chapels with the same floor plan, which correspond to the trapezoidal fields of the corridor. Vaults grow on small heads of pear-shaped crossbars, the whole is sober and simple. He builds the end of the choir with arcades up to the triforium . He builds the eastern part of the long choir with one chapel on the north and two on the south side. In the south, he begins construction, including the perimeter masonry of the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was at first located separately outside the part of the cathedral under construction, and in the north, he begins the sacristy . In 1352, at the age of sixty-two, Matthias of Arras died. From 1356, Petr Parléř , born in Swabian Gmünd, took over the management of the building . He came to Prague very young, about 23 years old, most likely from Kolín nad Rýnem , and he had to have the support and experience of a family of builders behind him to be entrusted with a building of such dimensions. Parler came from an important family of builders. In the Cathedral of St. Víta used an unusual net rib vault of the so-called Parléřov type, which is actually a barrel vault with cut-outs for windows with beautiful decoration, which were still supporting ribs at the time. St. Vít is a three-nave cathedral with a transept, a triforium and a crown of chapels. The most important of them is the chapel of St. Wenceslas, built over his grave. Parléř vaulted this almost cubic room with a previously unknown star pattern vault, the supports of which, in contrast to traditional vaults, moved from the corners of the room to thirds of the walls. The St. Wenceslas Chapel was consecrated in 1367 and decorated by 1373. Next to the chapel of St. Wenceslas, the southern vestibule was built until 1368, and on its floor the crown chamber, where the Czech royal crown jewels are kept . Parler then founded a large or bell tower, which his successors raised to a height of 55 meters. The choir was vaulted and completed in 1385. After the death of Charles IV. Parler continued the work, but he too died twenty years after the emperor. Followers' interest then waned. Parler's sons rammed the construction site with a wall of planks and closed the fragment of the temple with a wall. The cathedral thus remained a torso until 1929. Modifications in 15-18 century During the reign of King Vladislav II. Jagiellonian, the late Gothic royal oratory was built, the authorship of which is attributed to the architect Benedikt Ried (Rejt) and the design to Hans Spiess . A covered bridge from the oratory connects the cathedral to the Old Royal Palace . After the great fire of the Castle and the Lesser Town in 1541, which destroyed many buildings, during subsequent repairs in 1556-1561, the western Wohlmut's nave was built, enclosing the unfinished cathedral (during Mocker's completion of the cathedral, it was dismantled and moved to the north side of the transept, where it is still . The altars with pictures and statues in the cathedral were largely broken after the coronation of Frederick of the Falkland as King of Bohemia on 27-28 December 1619 by order of the Calvinist preacher Scultét . According to the legend, recorded by canon Tomáš Pešina from Čechorod, when the cathedral of St. Welcome completed, it reaches the glory of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Therefore , during his visit to Prague in 1673, Emperor Leopold I laid the foundation stone for its completion, and funds were released for it, unfortunately the completion did not begin. The copper baroque helmet of the tower, under which the bells are hung, dates from 1770. Neo-Gothic addition The western part of the nave and the facade with two eighty-meter towers were added in 1873-1929 according to a project by Josef Kranner (died in 1871) and Josef Mocker . After Mocker's death in 1899, Kamil Hilbert took over . In September 1929 , with the participation of President Masaryk and Archbishop František Kordač (as shown above the vault of the triumphal arch of the cathedral's choir on the south side), the completion of the cathedral was completed on the occasion of the thousandth anniversary of the assassination of St. Wenceslas . Outside of religious services, the church serves as a treasury of Czech crown jewels, a mausoleum of Czech kings and a gallery of sculptural and painterly portraits. A number of prominent artists participated in the decoration of the western part of the cathedral - František Kysela , Max Švabinský , Alfons Mucha , Karel Svolinský , Otakar Španiel , Vojtěch Sucharda and others.

Ownership State of Czech Republic is the owner since 1950', when confiscated by communist government. Disputes over the cathedral ended on May 24, 2010, with an agreement between the newly appointed Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka and President Václav Klaus . In the text of the agreement, both parties expressed their will not to pursue further litigation, and a council was established , whose members are the holders of the seven keys needed to retrieve the Crown Jewels, to coordinate the common use and administration of the cathedral. The temple thus remained in state ownership. The legal dispute over the ownership of the cathedral is also interesting in that it is practically impossible to determine the owner of the building at the time of its creation, because in the medieval understanding the church was essentially the owner of itself, as it was considered a rather specific legal entity . Therefore, for example, it was possible to make a certain donation to the church and it was also possible to borrow money from it. The church only administered the cathedral through the chapter , but did not own it. However, its owner was in no way the sovereign or the state.

Hey @Trav4oilers. Sure, go for it! That sounds great!