Sankt Johann

Sankt Johann stands in Germany, a step from the towering cathedral next door. Its yellow and grey facade keeps a lower profile than its neighbour's bulk. A stone figure of John the Baptist watches from the gable, and the sun sometimes catches the carving's surface. Beneath the walls lies older ground: an earlier church served as the baptistery for the old cathedral. In 845 fourteen Bohemian princes received baptism here, and a plaque on the northern wall recalls that moment.

The building holds a Gothic rebuild from the fourteenth century and baroque remodelling from the eighteenth. In 1887 fire dealt the church its hardest blow. The reopened interior wears neobaroque form: a broad, bright hall beneath a shallow vault, edged in plain stucco frames. Under the west gallery lies the crypt, where canons have rested since 1769. The square tower, raised again after the flames, carries a baroque lantern and a gilded Madonna. Its carillon of eighty-four melodies sounds out over the city every day.

A slow walk around the walls rewards you with small marks. Medieval stonework survives on the north side, and the crest of Pope Urban III sits above the main door. Inside, you find light falling through tall windows onto a hall kept for quiet and prayer.