The ceiling fresco
An enormous painted surface covering the entire nave ceiling — among the largest and most overwhelming frescoes in Europe.
VitVit — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0
This is the one in the Lesser Town, with the great green dome, and it is the architecturally important one. Another church of the same name stands on the Old Town Square, smaller and plainer. When someone in Prague says "St Nicholas", they usually mean this.
The church for the astonishing Baroque interior, the tower for the view. The church is cheaper and the interior is genuinely singular — start there, and add the tower if time and budget allow.
Yes — near-daily concerts at reasonable prices, with programmes taking in Mozart, Vivaldi and Bach. The acoustics are excellent and the experience beats an ordinary hall. Tickets are sold at a desk inside or online.
You are in the middle of the Lesser Town: Charles Bridge five minutes away, the Lennon Wall seven, the Vrtba Garden five, and the Petřín funicular ten.
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St Nicholas Church in the middle of the Lesser Town square is the summit of Prague Baroque, and arguably the most important Baroque building in central Europe. It was built between 1704 and 1755 by the Dientzenhofer family — Christoph the father, then Kilián Ignác the son — and finished with a massive dome and a bell tower that dominate the Lesser Town from every angle. The interior is designed to overwhelm you deliberately: faux-marble columns in dark green, saints larger than life, and a ceiling covered by a fresco that ranks among the largest in Europe by area. The inner dome rises about 49 metres, and standing beneath it you see exactly how architecture was used as an instrument of persuasion during the Counter-Reformation. It has a significant musical connection: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played its organ during his stay in Prague in 1787, and a memorial mass was held here after his death. Classical concerts take place in the evenings today. The adjoining bell tower — owned by the city rather than the church — is visited on a separate ticket and carries a curious story: under communism it served as an observation post for the state security services.
An enormous painted surface covering the entire nave ceiling — among the largest and most overwhelming frescoes in Europe.
The organ Mozart played in 1787 — still in place and still used in concerts today.
An excellent view over the Lesser Town square, its roofs and the castle, with an exhibition on its use as a security observation post under communism.
Classical music under the Baroque dome with exceptional acoustics — one of Prague's finest musical evenings.
Malostranské náměstí, Malá Strana, Prague 1