Church of Our Lady before Týn (Czech: Kostel Matky Boží pred Týnem), with its famous Gothic spires, dominates Old Town Square and was Prague’s main Hussite church.
Hussite Church is a Christian movement that originated in Bohemia in the 15th century, a precursor to the Protestant Reformation.
The church soon became the center of the Bohemian Reformation movement and remained so until 1621, the year the Catholics took control after defeating the Protestants at Bila Hora, near Prague.
The complex was built starting in 1365 in Gothic style on the site of a Romanesque church, and was completed almost two centuries later.
Construction of the bell towers, approximately 80 meters high, began in 1402, but was interrupted during the Hussite Wars. The spires were completed only after 1510, while the interior nave is Baroque and was rebuilt after the Gothic nave was destroyed in the great fire of 1679.
The entrance to the church is hidden and is accessed through a small alleyway leading from the porticoes on the main square.
Inside the church is the tomb of Tychon Brahe, a Danish astronomer and astrologer who worked for many years at the court of Rudolf II.
The cathedral organ dates back to 1673 and is the oldest in Prague; the tin baptismal font, dating from 1414, is also the oldest in the city.
On the south wall of the church is a small window that once opened from the adjacent house; Franz Kafka lived here from 1896 to 1907.
