St Vitus Cathedral in Prague is the largest church in the whole of the Czech Republic. Capturing it in a single photograph is therefore not a trivial task. Most popular photographs of Prague only show part of the cathedral together with Hradcany Castle. Nico was only able to take this picture a few years after his first photographs of Prague. When his skills and equipment allowed him to capture such a tall building without having the space to take a few steps back.
Commonly, the Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert in Prague is called St Vitus Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta in Czech). This was also the official name of this church until 1997. It is the third church to stand on this site. The first was built in 930. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the founder of this first church, Václav I the Saint, chose Saint Vitus as his patron saint for a reason. The Duke of Bohemia wanted to convert his people to Christianity. Saint Vitus in Czech (Svatý Vít) sounds almost identical to the name of the pagan deity of the Slavs of the area, ‘Svantevit’. In this way, the thoughtful prince hoped to make the new religion more easily adaptable.
What do you think of this story of the name of St Vitus Cathedral? Do you find it plausible?
