There used to be a(nother) rotunda in Prague dedicated to St Stephen. It wasn’t always in Prague, but now it is. It also is no longer dedicated to St Stephen.

This article explains why all these changes took place, and what the rotunda is now used for.

History

Between the 1st and the 10th century, Bohemia was outside the Holy Roman Empire¹. The West considered it a pagan land, and traded on the differences between the “civilised West” and the “pagan Slavs”¹. In 995, the Premyslid dynasty created what is now known as Bohemia. As it became Christianised, it fell under the authority of the Pope in Rome¹.

It was around this time that they started to build a number of small round churches in Prague. It is interesting that some of these were built on the site of older pagan places of worship¹.

One of these is the rotunda of St Stephen in what is now Prague’s New Town. Who was St Stephen and why was there a church dedicated to him here?

St Stephen

St Stephen is the first Christian martyr¹. He’s mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible as a deacon in a church in Jerusalem². Members of various synagogues stoned him to death in Jerusalem^{1 2}.

The Rotunda

In those days, Prague was a lot smaller than it is today. This doesn’t mean that the area around Prague was wasteland; on the contrary, there were villages and people living on the outskirts.

The village of Na Rybničku (or ‘By the Pond’) was so named because of a fresh water source that existed there^{1 3}. The village and the land belonged to the Benedictine order of Břevnov³. In the early 12th century, they started building a rotunda and dedicated to St Stephen³.

Interestingly, they built another of Prague’s rotundas near a pond – the Rotunda of the finding of the Holy Cross.

In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights took ownership of the rotunda³. It’s not clear if this was a donation from the Benedictine order, if the Knights bought it, or if there was some other way they got hold of it. They integrated the rotunda into a hospital complex that Saint Agnes of Bohemia founded³.

In 1410, the Knights reconsecrated the rotunda to St Longinus³. This is the Roman soldier whose spear pierced Christ as he was on the cross. It was no random choice of saint; King Charles IV had recently bought relics of St Longinus to Prague, and had chosen to expand Prague by developing the New Town, which included annexing the village of Na Rybničku as part of his plan^{1 3}.

Architecture and art

They built the original rotunda in a Romanesque style² at the beginning of the 12th century⁴. Pragues has 3 Romanesque rotunda and this is the smallest one of the lot⁴. The rotunda is a small, circular building with a conical roof and a single entrance.

They added the octagonal lantern on the roof of the rotunda in the 17th century³, when they also added a Baroque nave⁴.

The rotunda today

Veneration for St Stephen didn’t disappear; they built a church next to rotunda in the 14th century and this new church is still dedicated to St Stephen².

Today the Greek Catholic Church uses the rotunda⁴.

References

1. The Mystery of the Prague – Jerusalem Alignment: A New Jerusalem in Bohemia; Vincent Bridges; Last accessed 2023-08-24[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Saint Stephen; Sygic.com; (Retrieved 2023-09-19) [↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Na Rybníčku: Rotunda of Saint Longinus; The Prague Vitruvius; Last retrieved on 2023-08-24[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
4. Rotunda of St Longin; Prague.eu; (Retrieved 2023-09-19) [↩][↩][↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.