Concert Venues

St.Catherine's Church was founded by Kasimirus III The Great before 1363 for the Augustinian order. The original plans were changed for unknown reasons, and the church is almost 13 m shorter than originally planned, also the facade has never been completed nor the two towers erected. St. Catherine's church has not very fortunate history, the flood of 1534 caused great devastation to the building, as well as the fire of 1556 when the ceiling collapsed. The church was damaged twice, in 1443 and in 1786 by earthquakes. As a reason of that in 1796 the Austrian authorities ordered the church to be closed down. The Augustinians retrieved the church eighteen years later but the town authorities decided to demolish it, because of appaling physical condition. Fortunately, this never happened, and the church restoration was conducted from middle XIX century to World War I. Now it's one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in Poland.

This church is one of the best examples of high baroque north of the Alps. However, K. I. Dienzenhofer's 1711 design didn't have the massive dome that now dominates the Lesser Town skyline below Prague Castle. Dienzenhofer's son, Krystof, added the 78m (260-ft.) high dome during additional work completed in 1752. Smog has played havoc with the exterior, yet the gilded interior is stunning. Gold-capped marble-veneered columns frame altars packed with statuary and frescoes. A giant statue of the church's namesake looks down from the high altar.W. A. Mozart played the organ here during his stay in Prague.

Cathedral of St. Nicholas
The centre of Ceske Budejovice is dominated by the vastness of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. Its construction began soon after the founding of the city and it was completed some time at the turn of the 14th century. There is little information about its original appearance, but is known that it became a dominating feature after its Late Gothic reconstruction between 1518 and 1535: at its head was a tower, another rose from the neighbouring presbytery and also towered to a considerable height above the nave ending in a slender spire. In July 1641 this building was destroyed together with its interior by the fire but construction could soon begin with the aid of charitable donations of a new church. It was erected between 1641 and 1649 in the Baroque style according to the designs of Giovanni Cipriani and Francesco Caneval. Building work was carried out hurriedly at the expense of the solidness of the structure so that builder Giaccomo di Maggi had to repair the entrance front in 1683. Sculptor Tomáš Zeisl created the sculptures of St. Nicholas, St. Wenceslas and the patron saint of the city St. Auracian for the recesses above the entrances. The Church of St. Nicholas became a cathedral with the establishment of the Ceské Budejovice bishopric in 1785. Its interior was altered or repaired several times during the 18th and 19th century. During the last reconstruction between 1968 and 1971 most of the side altars and canon benches from the presbytery were removed, and further alterations carried out simplifying the appearance of the interior. So today the most important part of the inside of the cathedral remains the main altar of 1791 with its oldest painting of St. Nicholas, the Rococo pulpit originally from the Gaetano Church in Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter) in Prague, and the Baroque altar of St. Ann and Our Lady of the 18th century in the side chapels. The city cemetery surrounded the church until 1784.

The building of Karlskirche (St.Charles's Church) was started in 1715 following plans of one of the most famous Austrian Baroque architects, Johann Fischer von Erlach. The church is spectacular. It is the biggest cathedral in Baroque style north of the Alps.
Initially, the church was build to honor the vows of Emperor Karl VI. given in the time of a severe plague epidemic. It was dedicated to saint Karl Borromeo.

An unusually wide front is composed of a number of contrasting elements which surprisingly add up to a unique and harmonic overall image. Two colums with an allegoric representation of the life of saint Borromeo are reminiscent of Italian Renaissance Trajan colum. They frame the main portal which resembles a Greek temple. The oval nave of the church is topped by an eye-catching dome (72 m high) spectacularly painted at the inside.
On Oct.12th, 1896 Anton Bruckner died in the gate-keeper's lodge, a building on the edge of the park near the Upper Belvedere. His body was embalmed and after a service in St.Charles's Church, which the whole music world of Vienna attended, among them Johannes Brahms, it was transferred to St.Florian and buried under the organ.

The church is situated at one of Vienna's central nodes, spacious 'Karlsplatz'. The area in front of Karlskirche was redesigned in the 1970s by one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century: Henry Moore. His artwork 'Hill Arches' adornes an oval water basin which reflects the church building.