CLEMENTINUM

Description

Essentials about the Clementinum in brief

Once used as a Jesuit college, the Clementinum, with an area of around 20,000 square meters, is Prague’s second largest building complex after Prague Castle. The huge Baroque building is located directly at Charles Bridge (by the Old Town Bridge Tower) and today houses the Czech National Library and several scientific institutes. In the Clementinum you can visit several churches, the beautiful library hall with its valuable globes and the astronomical tower, which houses an exhibition of historical measuring instruments.

The history of the Clementinum

The Jesuit order came to Prague in 1556 at the invitation of Emperor Ferdinand. The Jesuits were given an empty, dilapidated monastery by the emperor in which they were to build a university to compete with the Hussite Charles University. In the first decades the Prague Jesuits suffered from constant financial hardship. Students and teachers lived in very simple conditions in the dilapidated monastery. Only with the onset of the Counter-Reformation in Bohemia at the end of the 16th century did the order receive increased donations and was able to carry out restoration work and erect the first new buildings.

In 1616 the Clementinum was elevated to a Catholic university. After the crushing of the Bohemian Estates Uprising in 1621, the Jesuits also took over the management of the old Prague University. Emperor Ferdinand III finally united the Clementinum with Charles University in 1654. In 1653-1726, the Jesuits built the large Baroque-style building complex, which has survived to this day, and used it as a student dormitory and teaching facility.

The Clementinum includes the sacred buildings of St. Clement’s Church, St. Salvator’s Church, the Mirror Chapel and the Chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which are open to the public, as well as the Baroque Library Hall and the Astronomical Tower, which can also be visited. Meteorological measurements were taken here from 1752 and daily weather observations were recorded from 1775.

With the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Clementinum came into state hands. Empress Maria Theresa kept the observatory in operation, built the National Library in 1781, to which the old book collections were transferred, and gave parts of the building to the university for use. Incidentally, the Clementinum is also home to the oldest Mozart memorial in the world. The so-called “Mozarteum” was created in 1837 and is part of the music library. In addition, classical music concerts are held regularly at the Clementinum.