Church of the Holy Saviour (Kostel U Salvátora)

The Church of the Holy Saviour (U Salvátora), Prague’s largest evangelic church devoted to the Holy Saviour (Salvator = Saviour). In the beginning of the 17^th century, a great number of German Lutherans came to live in Prague, and soon they started to miss their own large church. The land plot for building one was purchased on their behalf by count Jáchym Ondřej Šlik by a house that later became the Paulan convent. In the years 1611 - 1614, they built a Gothic-Renaissance church of the Holy Saviour. J. Christofen of Graubünden was the builder; Giovanni Maria Filippi is assumed to have been the author of the project. After the Battle of Bílá Hora, the church was confiscated from the evangelics, it was closed and the preachers were expelled from Prague. In 1626, it was handed over the Paulan Order via a deed of donation, and this order modified the neighbouring house to a temporary monastery. Later on, they wanted to extend the monastery, and so they purchased the neighbouring house at the Old Town Square. The Paulan monastery was connected with the church via a covered corridor. The church burnt down in 1689 and after that, it was partially modified in Baroque style, with platform built above the side aisles. In 1720, a prismatic tower was added, and in the mid-18^th century, the main aisle and the chancel were decorated by Rococo stuccoes. It was probably on this occasion that the church front was completed with two towers. Later building modifications of the church and of the convent in 1777 were conducted by the builder Jan Prachner. After the Josephinian reforms in 1784, the abolished monastery and the desecrated church were allotted to the mint office. In 1863, the church was purchased by Bohemian evangelics; it was restored to serve the divine purposes again, and consecrated. This state has remained unchanged until the present days.

Important milestones in the history of the congregations by the Holy Saviour Church:

1609 - Rudolf’s Letter of Majesty, rise of the German evangelic congregation of Augsburg denomination
1611 - Laying down the foundation stone to the construction of a German evangelic church, named Church of the Holy Saviour (...der evangelischen Kirch Deutscher Nation, zum Salvator oder Heiland genannt)
1622 - Exile of the Salvatory clergy and teachers in Dresden; the church and the related buildings handed over to the Paulan Order
1781 - Patent of Toleration of Joseph II, 1784 the exile of the Paulans in the „empty Cyriak monastery“, abolishment of Prague’s Paulan convent
1796 - The church purchased by the mint plant.
1863 - Bohemian evangelic church a. v. purchases the church and in 1865, the internal aisle of the church is consecrated again.
1918 - Union of the evangelic church of Helvetian and Ausburg denominations gives rise to the Evangelic Church of the Czech Brethren, the saviour congregation of which has maintained the Church of the Holy Saviour in a spiritual and material way until the present days.