St John at the Laundry
Why is it significant?
Look for the small white church on Říční street, with a squat tower and a steep roof, so modest it could almost be a village chapel. That is exactly what it once was. Its name is kostel svatého Jana Křtitele Na Prádle, the church of St John the Baptist... at the Laundry.
Key Facts
| Place | St John at the Laundry |
|---|---|
| Address | Říční, 118 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08200, 14.40650 |
| Part of Walk | Prague's Secret Lesser Town: Kampa, the Devil's Stream & the Embassy Garden of 1989 |
| Generated | Generated |
Look for the small white church on Říční street, with a squat tower and a steep roof, so modest it could almost be a village chapel. That is exactly what it once was. Its name is kostel svatého Jana Křtitele Na Prádle, the church of St John the Baptist... at the Laundry.
Long before Malá Strana grew around it, this was the parish church of a small riverside settlement called Újezd, on the road along the Vltava. Its oldest walls are Romanesque, from the twelfth century, and inside, fragments of medieval wall paintings have survived centuries of whitewash. For hundreds of years the local fishermen, raftsmen and gardeners came here to be baptised, married and buried.
Then came Emperor Joseph the Second and his reforms in the 1780s, which closed this church, like so many others. It was sold, divided and turned to everyday uses, and for a time it served as a laundry, with washerwomen working where the altar had stood. The church was eventually returned to worship in the twentieth century... but the laundry never left its name.
Compare it with the palaces you have passed today. No famous architect signed it, no emperor paid for it, and yet it is older than all of them, older than Charles Bridge, older than the Lesser Town itself. It has outlived the Dominican monastery up the street, the Michna fortune and several empires, and the river has come calling more than once, as the name of this street, River Street, suggests.
There is something very Prague about a place keeping the nickname from its most humble chapter rather than its most glorious one. Now walk on to the end of Říční, turn left on to Vítězná, and head towards the river. Ahead of you, a broad granite bridge with ornate lamps leaps across the water... and its name has changed with every regime.