Prague has two St Nicolas churches, and this one is on the opposite side of the Old Town Square, with a great view of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn.

This is a rather beautiful church with an unimpressive exterior. Inside is a large, extravagant crystal chandelier in the shape of Czech crown, white painted walls with baroque decorations, and beautiful, brightly colored frescoes of four evangelists above the balcony and on the ceiling, in the best Italian tradition, which don’t go well with the fresco of Christ behind the altar, which is more modern. St Nicolas Church is a crowning achievement of Prague baroque architect Kilian Ignac Dientzenhofer, who apparently also built the other St Nicolas Church (it was started by his father). This church was built for Benedictine monks. An 18th-century organ is decorated with statues of angels and gilded ornaments of drapes. It is a very bright church with wooden seats and a dark brown marble altar. To the right of the entrance, there is a small bookshop with postcards and books about this church and Prague. In the evening, you can also enjoy a concert in this church--tickets cost 300Kc.

The first church is the Tyn Church (Kostel Panny Marie Pred Tynem--Church of Our Lady Before Tyn). The Tyn Church is a Hussite church dating from the early Gothic period of the 15th century. It is most recognizable with its spiked spires. The interior of the church is from the Baroque period.

I only saw the exterior of the church from the Old Town Square, but it is a beautiful sight to see and is the burial site of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who was a consultant of Hapsburg Emperor Rudolf II. Brahe died in Prague in 1601 from a burst bladder. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Tyn Church was a Hussite stronghold that the Hapsburgs were determined to destroy.

The other church that dominates the skyline of Prague's Old Town Square is the Catholic St. Nicholas Church (Kostel sv Mikulase), called a Baroque "wedding cake" by locals. This 18th-century church is located in the northwestern corner of Staromestske Namestie. St. Nicholas Church was built by Kilian Dientzenhofer, whose family was responsible for the design and construction of many other churches throughout Prague. This church is very tiny, but to me, it looked huge.

Author Franz Kafka was born next door to St. Nicholas Church at Celetna 3; this place is now a Kafka photo exhibit of his life.

So if you do the right thing and take the time to tour Prague, make sure that you take about an hour to see these two gems of Prague and its Old Town.

The church is used as a concert venue in the evenings, more often in summer. As the church is on the route from Charles Bridge to the Castle, the concerts tend to be well attended, owing to people seeing it advertised on the way to sightsee earlier in the day. This was how my mother and I came to buy tickets for chamber music one evening. The concert began at 7pm, and consisted mostly of music appropriate to the age of the building – lots of Bach, for example. The acoustics in the church are very good for this kind of music, and the players were very talented. They played one of my all-time favourite pieces of music – Bach’s double violin concerto in D minor. It sings lyrically to the soul at any time, and with the music souring and faintly echoed by the dome of the church, it was a magical experience at this concert.

The music here is well-played, cheap, and in fantastic surroundings – a perfect evening.