Unique modern churches built in Prague since 1990

Prague, Feb 8 (CTK) - Several modern churches have been built in Prague since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989 though most Czechs do not profess any religious faith and the number of believers in the capital is decreasing year-by-year, Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reports in its Prague supplement Tuesday.

At present thousands of Czechs and tourists admire mainly majestic Gothic and Baroque churches in Prague but hardly any of them know new church buildings that are also worth seeing, MfD writes, citing several examples of churches that are unique from the architectonic point of view.

The most recently, the church complex of Mother Teresa was consecrated on the outskirts of Prague in the "Southern Town" near the Haje metro station. The round-shaped building from 2007 revitalised plain concrete prefabricated houses in the locality.

In 2003, St Elisabeth Church was built instead of a former chapel in Prague-Kbely. Its original shape should symbolically resemble a loaf of bread a part of which is cut off and handed out to people.

Two years earlier, the St Prokopius church and community centre was opened in another new housing estate in the suburban district of Nove Butovice. The generously designed facility does not serve for divine services only but it is also a venue of concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events.

However, new churches appeared also close to the city centre in the past years. The Church of Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary with a pyramid-like structure was consecrated in the Prague 10-Strasnice neighbourhood in 1994, the paper writes.

It recalls that sacral buildings have a long tradition in Prague, dating back to the adoption of Christianity by the Premyslids rulers in the late 9th century. The first Christian church was built in Prague then, situated in the area of the Castle, the residence of Czech princes and later kings.

Since then churches and chapels have been mushrooming in towns and villages all over the country. They reflect all architectonic styles developed throughout the centuries.

MfD adds that in the 1930s Prague was literally flooded with modern churches in the style of functionalism. However, after World War Two and primarily after communists seized power in 1948 the construction of sacral buildings was halted for political reasons as the communist regime suppressed all churches and persecuted their followers.

The situation changed only after 1990. Though the Czech Republic is rather an atheistic country, in which only about one-third of inhabitants believe in God and adhere to some church, according to the latest polls, Prague, as well as other Czech towns, can boast some remarkable modern churches from the past 20 years, MfD writes.