Basilica of St. James the Greater
Baroque basilica famed for a centuries-old mummified arm hanging by the entrance, warning off would-be thieves.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Basilica of St. James the Greater in Prague centers on the withered arm hanging by the entrance and the legend behind it: a thief who slipped in one night after the jewels on a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a grip that would not let go. It traces how the local butchers' guild came to solve the problem the next morning, and moves on to the Baroque church that rose after a 1689 fire, its enormous organ and an ornate chancellor's tomb. Look up just past the doorway before you head inside.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
St. Vitus Cathedral
Gothic cathedral of soaring spires holding a cursed crown behind a door with seven locks.
Saints Peter & Paul Basilica
Neo-Gothic basilica with twin fifty-eight-meter spires and a devil's-bet legend behind it.
Church of Our Lady Victorious and The Infant Jesus of Prague
Baroque church sheltering a small robed wax statue of a child, thrown out and forgotten for seven years before rediscovery.
Bazilika sv. Ludmily
Neo-Gothic brick basilica with twin towers, honoring a murdered ninth-century Bohemian duchess turned saint.
Loreto
Baroque pilgrimage cloister built around a replica of the Virgin Mary's Nazareth house, with a diamond-studded treasury.
Břevnov Monastery
Baroque Benedictine abbey with an ancient crypt, founded beside a legendary spring over a thousand years ago.