The oldest church in the Czech Republic: Budeč, Levý Hradec or Prague Castle?

Czech heritage records · the oldest churches and rotundas

Ask “what is the oldest church in the Czech Republic?” and textbooks, quizzes and guidebooks give different answers, and often they are all right. It depends on what you count. The first church mentioned in written sources? The oldest walls still standing? Or foundations uncovered by archaeologists? And does Moravia count, where masonry churches stood earlier than in Bohemia?

We went through the academic literature, the Archaeological Atlas of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the National Heritage Institute and the websites of the sites themselves. For each building we say what is documented, what is only tradition, and where experts disagree.

The oldest standing church: the rotunda at Budeč (around 905)

The hillfort of Budeč near Zákolany, west of Prague, was one of the main seats of the early Přemyslid dynasty. Prince Spytihněv I, eldest son of Bořivoj and Ludmila, had a stone rotunda dedicated to St Peter and St Paul built here after 895 and most likely before 915. The year usually given is 905, so in 2005 the rotunda celebrated its 1,100th anniversary.

According to the Archaeological Atlas of the Czech Academy of Sciences it is the oldest surviving standing stone building in Bohemia, and it is usually described as the oldest standing building in the Czech Republic as a whole. The round nave is original from its foundations to its vault, as building surveys in 1990 and 2003 confirmed. Everything else is younger. The Romanesque tower was added in the second half of the 12th century, and the original horseshoe-shaped apse was replaced by a rectangular chancel in the Baroque period. That is why from outside the rotunda does not look as old as it really is.

Budeč also has a famous tradition attached to it. According to the legends of St Wenceslas, the young prince learned to read and write here. Besides the rotunda, the Budeč hillfort has the Church of the Annunciation and remains of ramparts.

What you can see today: the rotunda with its Romanesque tower in the middle of a churchyard. The interior is open only occasionally; check dates with the municipality of Zákolany or the parish.

The first church in Bohemia: St Clement at Levý Hradec (880s)

According to the Legend of Christian, Bořivoj I, the first Christian prince, had a church built after his baptism at his hillfort of Levý Hradec above the Vltava, north of Prague. He dedicated it to St Clement. It is dated to the 880s, most often to 882–884. Other dates you may find online (874, 880) have no support in reliable sources.

Here the distinction matters. Today's Church of St Clement stands on the same spot, on the acropolis of the hillfort, but nothing of Bořivoj's church survives. It was probably wooden. Between 1939 and 1941 the archaeologist Ivan Borkovský uncovered the foundations of a rotunda under the nave, but according to a newer interpretation by Petr Sommer they date from the 11th century at the earliest. They give themselves away by a foundation stone marked with a cross, the so-called lapis primarius, a custom that only appears in that period. Some tourist websites therefore wrongly speak of “9th-century foundations”.

The Gothic chancel dates from the end of the 13th century and has murals from the 1380s. The Baroque nave was built in 1675–1684 after the round part of the rotunda was demolished. Levý Hradec made history once more on 19 February 982, when St Adalbert (Vojtěch) was elected Bishop of Prague here.

The oldest church in Prague: Prague Castle

Bořivoj also built on the site that was to become the centre of the country. At Prague Castle he had the Church of the Virgin Mary built at the end of the 9th century, the first church in what is now Prague. Only remains survive. Ivan Borkovský discovered them in 1950 between the Na Baště garden and the Second Courtyard. You can see masonry from an 11th-century rebuilding up to about one and a half metres high, remains of the altar, and the tomb where Prince Spytihněv I († 915) and his wife were buried.

The oldest church still standing at the Castle is St George's Basilica. Prince Vratislav I, father of St Wenceslas, founded it around 920, and in 925 the remains of St Ludmila were brought here from Tetín. Until 1055 it was the burial place of the Přemyslids, and Vratislav I is buried here. The basilica is therefore usually described as the oldest surviving church building in Prague.

Even here there is a small “but”. According to later research, most of the walls above ground were built after a fire in 1142. Today's basilica is thus mainly a 12th-century Romanesque building on a 10th-century plan, and the red front facing the square is Baroque. Right next door is St George's Convent, the oldest monastery in Bohemia.

The third church at the Castle was the Rotunda of St Vitus, founded by Prince Wenceslas around 930. It gave way to a basilica from 1060 and today survives only as an archaeological find beneath the cathedral. The St Wenceslas Chapel stands above the site of its southern apse.

The oldest rotunda in Prague

Prague has three well-known Romanesque rotundas, and you can see all of them at least from outside. Sources differ on which is the oldest.

• The Rotunda of St Martin at Vyšehrad dates from the second half of the 11th century, the reign of King Vratislav II. Most sources call it the oldest surviving rotunda in Prague, and all agree it is the largest (internal diameter 6.5 metres). During the Thirty Years' War it served as a gunpowder store; restoration in 1875–1880 gave it back its appearance.
• The Rotunda of the Holy Cross (Finding of the Holy Cross) in the Old Town. Prague's tourist portal dates it to the late 11th century and calls it the oldest of the three, but Wikipedia dates it to after 1125. It is first mentioned in writing in 1365.
• The Rotunda of St Longinus in the New Town, from the early 12th century, is the smallest. It was originally dedicated to St Stephen.

If you need one answer for a test, the most common is the Rotunda of St Martin. If you want to be right even in front of a strict teacher, add that the dating of the Holy Cross rotunda is disputed.

Moravia: churches older than in Bohemia, but mostly just foundations

Christianity reached Moravia earlier than Bohemia, and with it came masonry churches. They stood at Great Moravian hillforts decades before Bořivoj built Levý Hradec. Mostly only their foundations survive.

• Modrá near Velehrad – the first Great Moravian church to be discovered. Josef Nevěřil found its foundations in 1911; the Archaeological Atlas dates it to the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries or the early 9th century. A hypothetical replica stands next to the foundations.
• St Methodius Hill at Sady near Uherské Hradiště – a cross-shaped church from the first half of the 9th century. It is associated with Archbishop Methodius, but his supposed grave was found empty.
• The Slavonic hillfort at Mikulčice – the largest group of Great Moravian churches. Since 1954 archaeologists have uncovered the foundations of a number of churches (nine to twelve, depending on the source) and more than 2,500 graves. The three-aisled basilica on the acropolis, 11 × 35.5 metres, is the largest excavated Great Moravian church. The foundations are conserved and marked.

From Mikulčice, the Great Moravia footbridge crosses the Morava river to the Slovak side. About 3.5 kilometres from the car park, in the middle of fields, stands the Church of St Margaret of Antioch near Kopčany. It is usually described as the only building from the Great Moravian period still standing. Graves found in 2004 would support that. But dendrochronology in 2013 dated timber from the building to 951, after the fall of Great Moravia. The dispute is unresolved. The church is also in Slovakia, so it does not count for Czech records, but it makes a good add-on to a trip to Mikulčice.

The oldest standing church in Moravia: the rotunda in Znojmo?

Of the standing Moravian churches, the one named most often is the Rotunda of St Catherine in Znojmo in the courtyard of Znojmo Castle. Reliable sources do not explicitly call it “the oldest standing church in Moravia”, however, and the date of the building varies widely, from the first half of the 11th century to the first half of the 12th. The South Moravian Museum counts it among the oldest artistic and architectural witnesses of Czech statehood.

The date of its murals is certain. According to an incised inscription they were painted in 1134, commissioned by Prince Conrad II of Znojmo for his wedding to Maria of Serbia. The unique cycle shows Přemysl the Ploughman and members of the Přemyslid dynasty. The rotunda has been a National Cultural Monument since 1962.

Before you go: to protect the murals, visitors are admitted only in small groups, and the rotunda closes in unfavourable weather. When we checked, the museum website said it was closed, so check the current status on the website of the South Moravian Museum in Znojmo.

Table: the oldest churches and rotundas in the Czech Republic

The rotunda at Starý Plzenec used to be described as possibly the oldest in the country. Most sources today regard Budeč as the oldest standing building, and newer research tends to date the Plzenec rotunda later.

The oldest church in Ostrava

This is one of the most common local questions. The answer is the Church of St Wenceslas in Moravská Ostrava. A parish priest of Ostrava is recorded in 1297, and according to the National Heritage Institute the first church probably stood shortly after the town was founded, in the second half of the 13th century. It had a single nave and burned down shortly after 1300. The present Gothic building dates from the 14th century. It is the oldest documented church in Ostrava and one of the city's oldest buildings.

Beware one frequent candidate: the wooden Church of St Catherine in Hrabová looks very old, but the original Renaissance church burned down in April 2002. Today's church is a faithful replica from 2004.

Trip ideas

The cradle of the Přemyslids in a day: Levý Hradec in Roztoky and Budeč near Zákolany are close to each other, north-west of Prague. In one day you can see the site of the first church in Bohemia and the oldest standing building in the country. If you want more, continue to Prague Castle and Vyšehrad for St George's Basilica and the Rotunda of St Martin.

Great Moravia by bike: from Mikulčice across the Great Moravia footbridge to the church near Kopčany is a few flat kilometres. Sady and Modrá lie near Uherské Hradiště, less than an hour's drive away.

We do not list opening hours or admission prices because they change. You will find them on the websites of the managing bodies, such as Prague Castle, the Vyšehrad National Cultural Monument or the South Moravian Museum in Znojmo.

More Czech heritage records

• The oldest town hall in the Czech Republic
• The oldest town in the Czech Republic
• The oldest house in the Czech Republic, in Prague and in Brno
• The oldest castle in the Czech Republic
• The largest castle in the Czech Republic and the world
• The largest chateau in the Czech Republic
• The oldest synagogue in Europe and the oldest monasteries in the Czech Republic
• The oldest bridge in the Czech Republic
• The oldest brewery in the Czech Republic

All records in one place: Czech heritage records.

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Frequently asked questions

Historical information from the Archaeological Atlas of the Czech Republic (archaeological institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences), the National Heritage Institute, Czech and English Wikipedia, Kudy z nudy, prague.eu and the websites of the individual sites; disputed points are marked in the text. Photographs from Wikimedia Commons. Lead photo: Rotunda of St Peter and St Paul at Budeč, Adéla Fontánová, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.