kaple svaté Kláry Chapel

The Chapel of Saint Clara is a Baroque building from the end of the seventeenth century. It stands on the hilltop of a vineyard above Trojský zámek in Prague's Troja. Together with the Vineyard of Saint Clara, it has been part of the Prague Botanical Garden since nineteen ninety-five.

Count Václav Vojtěch ze Šternberka, the then owner of Trojský zámek, had it built, probably in sixteen ninety-five. He dedicated it to Saint Clara, the patron saint and namesake of his wife Klára Bernardína. In nineteen twenty-four the chapel caught fire. During restoration it received a new roof and a sanctus bell tower, that is a small turret with a bell. It was last renovated in nineteen ninety-six. Today it belongs to the parish of the Salesian Centre in Kobylisích and mass is held there every Sunday.

It is a simple small building with a rectangular floor plan and a gabled roof. Above it rises the sanctus bell tower with a pyramidal roof and a cross. The entrance is in the western façade and consists of a simple rectangular portal. In the side walls there are three windows finished with a semicircle.

Inside there is a single room with a flat ceiling and a striking fabion, which is a rounded transition between the wall and the ceiling. The altar dates from the time of restoration after the fire in nineteen twenty-four. A Baroque painting above it depicts the Holy Trinity with the Virgin Mary and Franciscan saints. The crucifix dates from the middle of the eighteenth century.

An amusing story is connected to the chapel. It is said that it was haunted there for a while. Almost regularly around midnight the bell in the turret would ring by itself. The mystery was eventually explained. A monkey from the zoological garden found a hole in the fence and during its nightly outings would swing on the bell ropes.