page_title: St. Vitus Cathedral
section_title: Completion in 19th and 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: St. Vitus Cathedral / Completion in 19th and 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Krönung Kaiser Ferdinands I. zum böhmischen König im Dom zu Prag 1836.Français&#160;: Le couronnement de l'Empereur Ferdinand Ier, en tant que Ferdinand V, Roi de Bohême, dans la Cathédrale de Prague en 1836.
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Until 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
  This cathedral is a prominent example of Gothic architecture and is the largest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 by 60 metres, the main tower is 102.8 metres high, front towers 82 metres, arch height 33.2 metres.
context_section_description: In 1844, Václav Pešina, an energetic St. Vitus canon, together with Neo-Gothic architect Josef Kranner presented a program for renovation and completion of the great cathedral at the gathering of German architects in Prague. The same year a society under the full name "Union for Completion of the Cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague" was formed, whose aim was to repair, complete and rid the structure of everything mutilated and stylistically inimical. Josef Kranner headed the work from 1861 to 1866 which consisted mostly of repairs, removing Baroque decorations deemed unnecessary and restoring the interior. In 1870 workers finally laid the foundations of the new nave, and in 1873, after Kramer's death, architect Josef Mocker assumed control of the reconstruction.  He designed the west façade in a typical classic Gothic manner with two towers, and the same design was adopted, after his death, by the third and final architect of restoration, Kamil Hilbert.
  In the 1920s the sculptor Vojtěch Sucharda worked on the façade, and the famous Czech Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha decorated the new windows in the north part of nave. Frantisek Kysela designed the Rose Window 1925-7 which depicts scenes from the Biblical story of creation. By the time of St. Wenceslas jubilee in 1929, the St. Vitus cathedral was finally finished, nearly 600 years after it was begun. Despite the fact that entire western half of Cathedral is a Neo-Gothic addition, much of the design and elements developed by Peter Parler were used in the restoration, giving the Cathedral as a whole a harmonious, unified look.
caption: Coronation of King Ferdinand V of Bohemia in 1836
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