Monastery church of the Divine Saviour

The Church of the Divine Saviour (Czech: kostel sv. Salvátora) is a 13th-century Gothic church folded into the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, where Prague's Old Town meets Josefov, on Anežská street just steps from the Vltava. It has nothing to do with the better-known Church of the Holy Saviour at the Klementinum — the two sit over a kilometre apart and belong to entirely different centuries of architecture.

Who built it, and why here?

Construction began after 1261 at the initiative of Agnes of Bohemia, a Přemyslid princess who had already founded the first Poor Clares convent north of the Alps on this very site. Her nephew, King Přemysl Otakar II — crowned that same December — backed the project. An unnamed French master mason led the works, producing one of the earliest Gothic buildings in Bohemia: a two-bay ribbed nave closing in a five-sided apse, with a vaulted crypt below.

What was it actually built for?

Unlike an ordinary parish church, this one was conceived from the outset as a Přemyslid burial chapel. Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen (widow of King Wenceslaus I, who died in 1253 — before this church was even built — and was buried instead in the convent's older Church of St. Francis) was laid to rest here, alongside Kunigunde of Halych (wife of Přemysl Otakar II) and several royal children. The church doubled as a treasury for the kingdom's most prized relics, including a reliquary cross donated by Přemysl Otakar II said to contain a splinter of the True Cross — now held in Regensburg Cathedral's treasury.

What does the decoration inside actually mean?

A triumphal arch links the church to the adjoining Chapel of the Virgin Mary; its capital bears a carved likeness of Agnes herself, while heads of five Bohemian rulers and their consorts crown the arch above. Five-pointed stars recur in the window tracery as a resurrection motif, and five-petalled lilies appear beneath Agnes's portrait. The proportions follow the so-called "gate of harmony" (a 1:√2 ratio) combined with the golden section — an unusually sophisticated geometric scheme for its time and place.

How did it survive the convent's long decline?

The building weathered the Hussite Wars largely intact structurally, though every piece of its furnishings was destroyed and the space was repurposed as an armoury and mint. Royal patronage dried up once the Přemyslid line ended, and from the 15th century Dominican nuns took over the women's wing. The final blow came in 1782, when Emperor Joseph II's church reforms dissolved the convent outright; the buildings were carved up into rental flats, warehouses and workshops, and stood in decay for the next hundred years.

Who brought it back?

A restoration society, Jednota pro obnovu kláštera, began the rescue in the late 19th century, and architect Oldřich Stefan led a systematic architectural-historical survey starting in 1939. The whole complex passed to the National Gallery in Prague in 1963 and was declared a national cultural monument fifteen years later.

What is there to see today?

The Church of the Divine Saviour, together with the rest of the convent, now houses the National Gallery's permanent exhibition of medieval art from Bohemia and Central Europe. Gothic sculpture, panel painting and surviving fragments of the original 13th-century Christological frescoes fill the same space where Bohemian kings were once buried.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same church as the Holy Saviour at the Klementinum? No. It's a separate building over a kilometre away, several centuries older, Gothic rather than Baroque, and never had any Jesuit connection.

Who is buried here? Several Přemyslid women, including two queens both named Kunigunde, plus royal children. King Wenceslaus I himself died in 1253, before this church existed, and is buried in the convent's older Church of St. Francis instead.

Can visitors go inside today? Yes — it forms part of the National Gallery's medieval art galleries and is open on regular museum visiting terms, along with the rest of the convent complex.

Why "Saviour" rather than a saint's name? "Salvátor" is simply Latin for Christ the Saviour — the dedication points directly to him, not to a separate patron saint.