The Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral () in Nové Město,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, the Czech Republic, is the principal

Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia (; ), sometimes abbreviated OCCLS, is a autocephaly, self-governing body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that territorially covers the countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The current pr ...

History

Early history

According to oral tradition, the site where Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral stands was the site of a small church built by

Bořivoj I, Duke of Bohemia Bořivoj I (, , 852 – 889) was the first historically documented List of Bohemian monarchs, Duke of Bohemia and progenitor of the Přemyslid dynasty. His reign over the Duchy of Bohemia is believed to have started about the year 870, but in ...

, and dedicated by Saint Methodius himself. This link is based historically upon early and continuing reference to the name "Na Zderaze" for the existing church building. In 1091, the Czech lord Zderad was killed during the

siege of Brno The siege of Brno, which occurred from 3 May 3 to 23 August 1645, was the second Swedish siege of the city of Brno in the last years of the Thirty Years' War. The Brno garrison, consisting of 500 soldiers and about 1,000 Brno residents, succe ...

, and was buried in the earlier church which was near

. Zderad's name was then immortalized in the name of the street "Na Zderaze" which is adjacent to the cathedral, thus establishing a connection to this site that was hallowed by St. Methodius. From 1115, the church of

Saints Peter and Paul Peter and Paul may refer to: * Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle considered together ** Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June in the Catholic liturgical calendar ** St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (disambiguation) * ''Peter and Paul'' (film), 19 ...

stood on the site of the present church, around which the Knights of the Cross built the Zderazsky monastery. During the

Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...

, the church was largely destroyed, leaving only a part of the choir standing. In 1705, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Prague, Breuner, established a retirement home for priests on the site of the monastery next to which a church was later built. The present church was built as the Karel Boromejsky Church between 1730 and 1736 to plans by

Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer (; 1 September 1689 – 18 December 1751) was a German Bohemians, German Bohemian architect of the Baroque architecture, Baroque era. He is among the most prolific and renowned architects of his era in Bohemia. He was bo ...

. In 1935 it became the Orthodox Church of Sts Cyril and Methodius.: ''Durch Prag auf den Spuren der Böhmischen Reformation.'' Kalich Verlag Praha 2002, ISBN 80-7017-565-6, p. 78.

World War II

In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the cathedral was where a

last stand A last stand, or final stand, is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are d ...

was made by SOE-trained Czech and Slovak agents involved in the assassination of '' SS-Obergruppenführer''

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( , ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a German high-ranking SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He held the rank of SS-. Many historians regard Heydrich ...

. SS-''

Brigadeführer ''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between 1932 and 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as '' Untergruppenführer'' in ...

Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld (31 March 1885 – 7 June 1946) was a German military officer who served in the German Imperial Army, the ''Reichswehr'' and the Waffen-SS. During the Nazi era he held a number of important staff and field command p ...

commanded the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

forces that stormed the church on 18 June 1942. After a fierce gun battle, two of the Czechoslovaks were killed and the rest committed suicide to avoid capture. There is a museum in the church crypt dedicated to them as national heroes.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* {{Authority control ''This article incorporates text from " Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral" at OrthodoxWiki under a CC BY-SA 2.5 license.'' Cathedrals in the Czech Republic Churches in Prague Eastern Orthodox cathedrals History museums in the Czech Republic Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer buildings Museums in Prague Operation Anthropoid World War II museums Churches completed in 1736 18th-century religious buildings and structures in the Czech Republic Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia