The church of St. Stephen was founded together with
New Town (on 3 March 1348) by
Charles IV. (1316 – 1378), the King of Bohemia and also the Holy Roman Emperor, founder of New Town - a quarter outside the city walls, the youngest and largest of the five independent towns that today comprise the historic center of modern
Prague. An avid collector and admirer of relics, he obtained the remains of St. Stephen in Rome and donated them to the church. The St. Stephen Church served as a
parish church for the upper part of New Town (in the lower part of New Town this function is fulfilled by the Church of St Henry and St Kunnigunde). At first the church was managed by the order of
Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (), just when Charles IV. received most of the land for the founding of New Town. The church was built in the years 1351 – 1401, when the main builder master George is mentioned. Completion of the western tower is dated to the year 1401, when the whole church must have already been built. The church also had a large lot, filling most of the space between the present-day streets Štěpánská, Ječná, Na Rybníčku and Žitná. There was a parish garden and a large
cemetery. During the plague epidemic in 1502, more than fifteen thousand people were buried there. Several buildings were there: a rectory (in the southwest corner), a school, a wooden
belfry (which was rebuilt in stone in the early 17th century), the Chapel of All Saints, Jerusalem chapel, as well as the rotunda of St. Login. In 1686, the Cornel Chapel was built to the south wall of the nave and then the Branberger Chapel to the north wall of the
sacristy, which was opened in 1739. In 1866 a
Neo-Gothic hall was built in the north part of the nave. A known restorer of that time,
Josef Mocker, redesigned and restored the church in a puristic style in 1874 – 1879. He was responsible for restoring many Bohemian castles and ancient buildings in Prague. His work in a puristic Gothic Revival style aroused much controversy, but also contributed to many important landmarks of Prague. Here Josef Mocker designed a new
tracery in the
presbytery, a new window in the nave, and also a frontage in the aisle. Nowadays, the church is managed by the
Roman Catholic parish of St. Stephen and is owned by the
Archdiocese of Prague.
General characteristic The church is built as a Gothic
basilica with three naves and a presbytery with a polygonal ending in the east. The sacristy buildings, a tower in the frontage, two Baroque chapels and a Neo-Gothic hall are adjacent to the main building. The main nave with the chancel are covered by a gable roof, hipped in the eastern part. The sacristy with Baroque working is located between the northern wall of the presbytery and the eastern wall of the northern aisle.
The main nave, side naves, presbytery The unit of the three naves, which has almost a square layout, is designed as a basilica. The main nave is divided into four rectangular fields vaulted with a ribbed cross
vault. The vault profile is identical to the profile of diagonal ribs which are pear-shaped, resting on a round shaft, which continues to the ground. The nave is elevated by about one third of the height of the church above the
aisles. In the west the nave is supported by a powerful
buttress, which adjoins to the wall of the
tower, on the sides it is supported by four graduated slender
linchpins, which are finished by gables. The aisles are broken by four lancet windows with tracery. The nave along with the chancel are covered by tiles. As the nave, the aisles are also divided into four fields, this time almost square floor plan. The fields are also arched over with ribbed cross vaults. The room of these three naves is divided by three pairs of massive prismatic
pillars with the main support function of arches. The aisles are covered in slate. To the southern side of the nave in southwest corner are two graduated abutments. ("They show the fact that according to original plans the tower was at first supposed to be built above the westernmost field of the southern nave. The wall is also thicker there. This intention was later abandoned and the tower was built on its current site.") In the southern aisle, there is another backrest along with a window to the west and three cuspidate windows to the south side. An early Baroque rectangular chapel later extended the second bay from the west. Abutments of the north side of the nave are deployed in the same way as in the south aisle, but the corner one is designed as oblique. Here again are three cuspidate Gothic windows and in the third field from the west is placed a Neo-Gothic hall built by Josef Mocker. The northern aisle passes to a square sacristy with two semicircular closed windows, between which the Baroque Branberger Chapel is located. From this aisle it is possible to enter into a Neo-Gothic stone hall, which is covered with a cuspidate portal with crabs and pinnacles. This Neo-Gothic portal is accessible due to a narrowing stone staircase. The presbytery fluently continues to the nave of the church. The presbytery consists of two rectangular bays arched over with ribbed cross vaults and five-sides concluding with a six-beam vault. The room of the chancel and of the nave are separated by just a plain, slightly angled
triumphal arch with an almost rectangular profile. The height of the nave is sixteen meters, proportioned at a 2:1 ratio. The chancel is supported by eight back rests of the same type as in the nave, but now twice graded and more massive. Between the abutments there are six high lancet windows.
Tower of the church In the western frontage, to the axis of the church is designed a quadrangular massive
steeple, which is covered with a Neo-Gothic helmet, high tent roof with small corner spires designed by Josef Mocker in 1875. A previous tower roof from 1605 fell down during a big storm in 1870. The fifty-seven meter high tower is irregularly divided by four band
cornices and lies on a cubic pedestal with a single profiled cornice. On the west side of the tower on the second floor is a small walled
alcove, on the third floor a large Gothic window divided into three parts, again designed by Josef Mocker, and on the fifth floor an architecturally simple double Gothic window. At the top, a modern clock is placed below the eaves of the roof. The walls of the tower are mortared. Two staircases are connected to the tower, a spiral staircase with continuous windows with chamfered jambs on the south side, on the north side a renaissance rectangular staircase, which also covers the western frontage of the north aisle. On the ground floor of the tower there is a renaissance portal, which is semi-circularly arched and currently serves as the main entrance to the temple. == Chapel of Cornel ==