Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius in Charles Square (kostel sv. Ignáce)

The Church of St. Ignatius with the original New Town Jesuit College is ranked among one of the early Baroque buildings of Prague and is considered the third greatest Jesuit complex in Europe. The architect Carlo Lurago had chosen the main Roman Jesuit temple Il Gesù to be his model of the construction.

All about: Church of St. Ignatius

Church of St. Ignatius – panoramatic picture
(drive your mouse over the picture – if you move the mouse pointer the picture will start to move)

Founding of the church
The church was founded in the second half of the 17th century in place of 23 demolished medieval houses. It was devoted to St. Ignatius of Loyola, the patron saint and founder of the Jesuit order. Jesuits were noted for being conformed to hard discipline, absolute obedience and ascetic way of life according to their founder´s model.

The Church of St. Ignatius is part of the educational tourist route Prague City Line Praha 2. Find the church easily under the No. 2

Rarity related to the Church of St. Ignatius
On the top of the church face you can notice the statue of St. Ignatius and one of the local attractions, namely the performance of the aureole surrounding the saint´s body. At that time, the aureole was perceived as considerlably seditious. Based on the clerical rules, only Jesus Christ was allowed to have an aureole around his whole body, however the position of the Jesuit order was so strong that this extravagance was tolerated.

Church decorations:
The church painting decorations were carried out by Jan Jiří Heintsch and the sculptural decorations by Matěj Václav Jäckel whose works we know mainly in reference to the Charles Bridge. Another somewhat mystical attraction of the church is the notice on the tympanon completed by a chronogram.. In the sentence „MAIORI DEI GLORIAE et SANCTI IGNAZII HONORI PIAETAS EREXIT“ (you can find the complete text in the photo gallery below) selected numbers are indicated in capital letters which represent the year 1671 when the statue of St. Ignatius was placed onto the church roof. The text itself concerns the honour to St Ignatius.

Address:
Ječná 505/2
120 00 Praha-Nové Město
Phone: +420 221 990 200
E-mail: ignac@jesuit.cz

Transport connection:
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BARRIER-FREE ACCESS: no

OPENING HOURS:
opened during services

All about: Prague 1 Monuments

All About: Prague 2 Monuments

All about: Prague 3 Monuments

All about: Prague Castle

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