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The Anezsky klaster is the first Early Gothic building in Prague (founded 1234) - something notable in a city filled with amazingly well-preserved examples of Gothic architecture such as St Vitus, the Charles Bridge and the Powder Tower.
The Anezsky klaster is the first Early Gothic building in Prague (founded 1234) - something notable in a city filled with amazingly well-preserved examples of Gothic architecture such as St Vitus, the Charles Bridge and the Powder Tower. Over the years the complex's convent, chapels and several churches deteriorated and in some cases, were completely destroyed. After Habsburg emperor Josef II's religious reforms, the convent was shut down in 1782 and converted into lodgings for the poor. St Anežka, (Sv. Anežka česká) who is pictured on the pink 50-crown banknote, is the patron saint of Bohemia and founder of the convent complex. She was a daughter of the ruling Premyslid family, but no wallflower in terms of her activism, intelligence and energy. St Francis of Assisi, after whom one of the churches in the complex is named, founded his religious order in 1209 without the sort of financial backing earlier orders had enjoyed. As communism was crumbling, the remaining religious leadership, decimated over years by Communism's anti-religious influence, lobbied the Vatican to finally declare Anežka a saint. This happened 12 November 1989, though Anežka's niece Elizabeth had started the process in 1328! Today, the convent is used to house part of the Czech National Gallery's collection.
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The Spanish Synagogue, so-called because Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain at the end of the 15th century built a previous synagogue on this site, is a wild combination of neo-Renaissance and Moorish-Spain style
That striking man standing atop a patina-green metal mountain in the center of Old Town Square is not Jesus, though he resembles him
The name sounds strange for a building from the 13th century but it was originally just 'New' to distinguish it from an even older synagogue
The Old Town Square is the center of Prague's eventful history, dating back to the 12th century when it started out as the central marketplace
The Museum of Czech Cubism is in the recently renovated House of the Black Madonna
Jewish quarter of Prague