Prague, July 23 (CTK) – The royal burial chamber in the underground area of the St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle has been reopened after reconstruction works that lasted four months and cost about six million crowns.
New air conditioning and lighting systems have been installed in this area. The rather ugly grey concrete lintels of the ceiling were suppressed. Wall fragments were cleaned and conserved and the interior of the royal vault, including the sarcophaguses and a golden mosaic, was restored.
The burial chamber is dominated by the bronze sarcophagus of Emperor Charles IV. The royal chamber was built shortly after the death of Emperor Ferdinand I in 1564. It present form daes from the 1920s and 1930s and it resulted from the work of architects Kamil Hilbert and Kamil Roskot.
For climatic reasons, visitors to the Castle who want to see underground area of the cathedral will have to book their visit in advance, the Prague Castle Administration decided.
In the crypt, a Romanesque wall can be seen along with a later one from the 14th century construction of architect Peter Parler, said conservationist Petr Mechura, from the Presidential Office, who supervised the reconstruction.
In 1927, an extensive archeological survey started thanks to which fragments of a former rotunda were revealed in the cathedral’s underground, Mechura said.
