St Vitus Cathedral in Prague

This Gothic cathedral, the spiritual symbol of the Czech state, was founded by Jan Lucembursky (John of Luxembourg) and his sons Karel and Jan Jindrich. It contains the underground toms of many Czech kings, and is fully named as the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral. Located within Prague Castle it stands as an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is one of the biggest and most important churches in the country. Founded on 21st of November, 1344 construction began but was halted at the beginning of Hussite War during the first half of 15th century. Through most of the following centuries, the cathedral stood only half-finished. It was built up to the great tower and a transept, which was closed by a provisional wall. Several attempts to continue the work on cathedral were mostly unsuccessful but in the late 15th century, king Vladislav Jagiellon commissioned the great Renaissance-Gothic architect Benedict Ried to continue the work, which was again cut short because of lack of funds. In 1844 Vaclav Pesina, an energetic canon St Vitus, together with Neo-Gothic architect Josef Kranner presented a program for renovation and completion of the great cathedral at the gathering of German architects in Prague - by the time of St Wenceslas jubilee in 1929, the St Vitus cathedral was finally finished; it had taken almost 600 years to built it! Despite the fact that entire western half of Cathedral is a Neo-Gothic addition, much of the design and elements developed by Peter Parler were used in the restoration, giving the Cathedral as a whole a harmonious, unified look. Of particular interest are Parler's net vaults.