Church of Saints Philip and James

The Church of Saints Philip and James crowns a limestone outcrop above the Vltava in Prague's Zlíchov district, right over the railway line that hugs the riverbank toward Barrandov. This early 18th-century Baroque church is one of the most recognizable landmarks along this stretch of Prague 5, visible equally from the water and from passing trains.

Where exactly does the church stand?

The building sits on the crest of the so-called Svatoštěpánská skála (St. Stephen's Rock), a rocky spur rising sharply above the river. The cramped site forced an unusual architectural compromise: instead of the traditional east-facing chancel, the church was built facing north, since there simply wasn't room on the outcrop to orient it the conventional way. A small, walled cemetery still wraps around the building, though no one has been buried there for more than a century.

How did this site come to look the way it does?

The earliest written record of a chapel here dates to 13 February 1257, when a Romanesque chapel dedicated to St. Stephen stood on the rock. Toward the end of the 14th century, the village of Zlíchov and its chapel passed to the Carthusians of the nearby Smíchov monastery, who rebuilt it in Gothic style around the turn of the 15th century.

That stability didn't last. In August 1418, Hussite forces stormed and razed the Carthusian monastery at Smíchov. The chapel on the rock survived, but for the next two centuries it was administered by the Utraquists. Ownership changed again in 1624, when the Jesuits of Prague's Clementinum bought the village of Zlíchov along with patronage rights over the church.

It's the Jesuits who gave the church its present form. Between 1713 and 1714 they replaced the older Gothic structure with the Baroque building seen today, consecrated on 5 May 1714. The parish marked the 300th anniversary of that consecration in 2014.

What's worth looking for on site?

The church's exterior is unpretentious but coherently Baroque: a rectangular nave under a flat ceiling, a rectangular presbytery, and a slim, prism-shaped tower. Three bells hang in that tower — the oldest, the St. Francis bell, was cast in 1697, predating the current church itself, while the other two date from 1838 and are dedicated to Saints Philip and James and to St. John the Baptist.

Right beside the church, on the north side of the rock, stands a Baroque stone statue of St. John of Nepomuk, raised on a 225-centimeter sandstone pedestal shaped like a prism. It's also worth walking through the small cemetery encircling the church — the graves belong largely to former residents of Zlíchov, once an independent village later absorbed into Prague.

Is the church still in active use?

Yes. It belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Saints Philip and James, seated in the neighboring district of Hlubočepy, and continues to function as an active parish church. It is also listed as a protected cultural monument.

Frequently asked questions

How old is the church in Zlíchov? The current Baroque building dates from 1713–1714, but a place of worship has stood on this rock continuously since the Middle Ages — the first record of a chapel here goes back to 1257.

Why does the church face north instead of east? The rock it stands on above the Vltava left no room for the conventional east-facing layout, so the builders oriented the church north instead.

Can visitors walk around the cemetery next to the church? Yes, the small walled cemetery surrounding the church is open to walk through, although burials there stopped over a hundred years ago.

Which parish does the church belong to? The Roman Catholic parish of Saints Philip and James, based in Prague's Hlubočepy district.