Tuesday 15 August 2023

Wenceslas Look

THE Cathedral of Saint Wenceslas was consecrated in 1131, almost 200 years after the death of Wenceslas (also spelt Wenceslaus) the Good, Duke of Bohemia.
The duke was murdered by his younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, whose epithet apparently was not a sufficient warning sign.
Wenceslas was posthumously made a king by Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, and is the subject of the 19th century English carol Good King Wenceslas, which was based on a slightly earlier Czech poem.
The cathedral was given a Gothic makeover in the 1300s and 1400s, and again in the late 1800s. It was allowed to run down during communist rule but was restored from 2004-7.
The facade is suitably imposing, but the inside is decoratively very restrained compared with many Roman Catholic places of worship in central Europe.



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