Prague Loreto

The Prague Loreta was founded in 1626 by Benigna Katharina von Lobkowicz as one of the many Loreto shrines built across Catholic Europe in the Counter-Reformation, each containing a replica of the Santa Casa, the house at Nazareth which tradition holds was carried by angels to Loreto in Italy. The Santa Casa here stands in the middle of a cloistered courtyard, its outside covered in stucco reliefs. Around it the cloister was raised and given a baroque front by the Dientzenhofers in the 1720s, with a tower carrying a carillon of nearly thirty bells, heard since 1695, which plays a Marian hymn on the hour and is audible across Hradcany. The treasury upstairs holds vestments and monstrances, of which the Prague Sun of 1699 is set with more than six thousand diamonds. There is also a chapel holding an image of a bearded female saint, Starosta, which unsettles most visitors.

The main sights

• The Santa Casa - a replica of the Nazareth house, stucco-covered, in the courtyard.
• A carillon of nearly thirty bells - heard since 1695, playing on the hour.
• The Prague Sun - a monstrance set with over six thousand diamonds.
• The bearded saint - an image of Starosta in one of the chapels.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Practical notes

The carillon plays on the hour - time the visit for it. The treasury is behind glass and the lighting is dim. It is small and busy. Photography is restricted in the treasury.

Nearby

Strahov monastery and Prague Castle are both short walks away.