Description: In the mid-13th century, the Islam armies conquered the Christian Holy Land. According to legion, while this was happening, two priors were able to remove the Santa Casa (Holy House) stone by stone and rebuild it near Loreto in Italy. The house was visited by many pilgrims and was later richly decorated. When the Catholic Habsburgs were trying to convert their Hussite subjects to Catholicism, they built replicas of the Santa Casa throughout their kingdom. The best known of these is the Loretta of Prague.
This outstanding complex of ambits, Nativity Church, Holy House and tower with clock and world-famous glockenspiel has for more than 300 years been located in Hradčany. It is a popular place to visit today, for some as a pilgrimage but for many as another sightseeing attraction. It is certainly worth checking it out when you are in the castle district.
You can see the Prague Loretta not just as an architectonic historical sight, but also as a baroque pilgrim place. The history was started by the laying of the foundation stone of the Holy House in 1626. The first patroness and the founder was Benigna Catherine from Lobkowicz.
The pilgrim place is a closed complex of buildings around the central Holy House with a rectangular palatine arcade courtyard. The present Nativity Church and two of the chapels were originally just shallow niches with altars. As the fame of the Loretta grew, more people visited and it was necessary to enlarge the liturgical areas. Gradually larger rectangular shaped chapels were built into the corners of the courtyard, and in several phases, the Nativity Chapel was rebuilt into a spacious church.
In the 1950s and 60s, a new treasure house was built, which is open for the public. The most valuable item of the liturgical treasury is the so-called Prague Sun, a monstrance weighing over 12 kg and embellished with 6,222 diamonds. Another unique treasure is the Gothic chalice, with enamel pictures dating from 1510. The carillon that calls the devout to prayer every hour is also interesting. The tower contains 27 Loreto bells which play a Marian song We Greet You a Thousand Times.
Like most of the big attractions of Prague, the Loretta is often choked by tour groups and getting through the chaotic throng can be something of a mission that requires a great deal of perseverance and patience. The Loretta is looked after by the monks from the Monastic Order of Smaller Brothers Capuchin's, whose monastery is in the vicinity of the church of Virgin Mary Angelic.
Facing the Loretta monastery is the foreign ministry, the Cernin Palace, where in 1948 the communists murdered Jan Masaryk by throwing him out the window from the second floor. Jan Masaryk was an important politician and the son of T. G. Masaryk, the popular first president of the Republic.
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