Organ concert Ave Maria; Bach – Air at the church of St. Francis in the Old Town of Prague, just next to Charles Bridge
Organ concert of the Ave Maria; Bach – Air in the Church of the Knights with red star and red cross of St. Francis of Assisi.
The church was built in the Baroque style in the second half of the 17th century by the builders Gaudenzio Casanova and Domenico Canevall according to the plans of Jean-Baptista Mathey. The church partially stands on the site of the original Gothic church, founded by St. Agnes of Bohemia in the 13th century. The wall frescoes and the dome were decorated by one of the best Baroque painters - Václav Vavřinec Reiner, the author of the frescoes in the chancel is Jan Kryštof Liška, while the sculptural decoration is mainly the work of Matěj Václav Jäckel and Jan Antonín Quitainer.
The organ in the church of St. Francis is one of the oldest in Prague, dating back to 1702, so it is the second oldest instrument in Prague. Many famous personalities, including W. A. Mozart, A. Dvořák and J. F. N. Seger, played this famous instrument, which is also sensitively repaired today. The organ is located in the right front part of the church, thus ensuring a great acoustic and visual experience.
The church and the monastery belongs to the Order of the knights with the red cross and the red star.
The beginnings of the knights with the red cross and the red star, the only purely Czech order, are connected with Princess Anežka Přemyslovna (St. Agnes of Bohemia), who in 1233 founded a community of brothers and sisters at her monastery in Prague on Francis. Its task was to take care of old, sick people and generally all those in need. From this small hospital brotherhood, the Order of the knights with the red cross and the red star was formed in 1237, and in 1252 it settled in its current location, i.e. in the forecourt of the bridge over the Vltava, where it has a church of St. Francis its residence for almost 800 years.
How to get to the concert:
The Church of St. Francis is situated on the right bank of the river Vltava - in the Old Town, in Křižovnické náměstí Square right next to the Old Town end of Charles Bridge and the tower, neighboring to the building of Klementinum. You can walk five minutes south from both the metro A and the tram - trams No 2, 17 or 18 - stops Staroměstská or you follow Karlova Street from the Old Town Square.
