Mozart's Favorite Cathedral

Last week your Tonic Trekker visited St. Nicholas Church in Old Town Square, so we thought it only fair to also take a trip to its namesake sister church, St. Nicholas Cathedral. Both are marvelous ecclesiastical structures, but the Cathedral located in Lesser Town near the castle stands out for its incredible music heritage — Mozart used to play the church organ when he lived in Prague.

The photo at right shows just one-side of the massive second-floor organ (due to the lack of a good camera angle), but it's still obvious what an incredibly grand musical instrument Mozart had his fingertips. As you might expect, the cathedral still hosts musical concerts within its walls, and appropriately enough, the selection for the day I visited was Mozart's "Requiem."

As far as the cathedral itself, St. Nick's origins date back to the late 13th century but the current structure began construction in 1673 and wrapped about 80 years later. Kryštof Dientzenhofer primarily designed the plans for the Baroque masterpiece, but it was his famous son Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer that finished the cathedral and designed the dazzling dome. The son had previously designed the aforementioned St. Nicholas Church.

There are a lot of must-see cathedrals in Prague, most notably St. Vitus, but if you have time to see a few, definitely include both St. Nick's churches on your schedule.