Bethlehem Chapel

Where Jan Hus preached in Czech, rebuilt from the foundations in the 1950s

Area Staré Město
Type Church
Time needed 40m

The Bethlehem Chapel was founded in 1391 as a hall for preaching in Czech, and from 1402 Jan Hus preached in it, which makes it the place where the Czech Reformation was argued out loud. It was demolished in the 1780s, and what stands on Betlémské náměstí in the Old Town is a reconstruction built from the surviving foundations and walls in the early 1950s. It is a wide, bare, whitewashed room with no nave and no aisles — built so that two or three thousand people could hear one voice.

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Getting there

Metro line B (yellow) to Národní třída, then about five minutes on foot north into the lanes towards Betlémské náměstí. From the Old Town Square it is a walk of eight to ten minutes south-west, through Husova or down past the Klementinum, and the square opens unexpectedly off narrow streets. Trams along Národní to the Národní divadlo or Národní třída stops leave a similar short walk. The entrance is level, off the square.

What you see

The room is the exhibit. You walk into an almost empty hall with a flat timber ceiling, a brick floor and three bare walls, and the proportions explain the building's purpose at once — everything is arranged towards the pulpit. Sections of the original fourteenth-century masonry are left exposed where the reconstruction met them, and the pulpit stands on the site of the one Hus used. The upper walls carry painted texts and figures copied from the illuminated Hussite manuscripts, including the Jena Codex, which were used as the evidence for how the chapel's own decoration had looked. Off the hall are the preacher's lodgings, with a small exhibition on Hus, on the chapel's destruction and on the twentieth-century rebuilding, and a vaulted room below. The adjoining rooms and the courtyard are part of the visit.

What to pair it with

The Klementinum library and the Old Town Bridge Tower are both within a few minutes' walk north. The House of the Black Madonna is ten minutes east along Celetná, and the Old Town Square itself sits between them.

When to go

It is quiet nearly always, which is much of its appeal in this part of the city — a weekday morning or a late afternoon are both fine. It closes one day a week and the hours shorten out of season, so check before you go. The building is also used for university ceremonies and occasional concerts, which close it to visitors at short notice. Low winter light coming through the plain windows suits the room.

What is hard about it

This is a reconstruction, and it looks like one: the fabric is largely 1950s work, finished in a period when the Hussites were being enlisted as proto-revolutionaries, and the exhibition still carries some of that framing. Visitors expecting a medieval interior find a plain modern hall with fragments of old wall in it. There is nothing to see in the way of art, furnishing or treasure, and the whole visit is short. Entry is ticketed. If the history of Hus means nothing to you, the room will not supply the interest by itself.

Common questions

How long do you need at the Bethlehem Chapel?

Thirty to forty minutes, including the small exhibition in the preacher's house. It is a short stop rather than a destination in itself.

Is any of the original building left?

Parts of the walls and the foundations are original fourteenth-century work and are deliberately left visible. The rest, including the roof and the ceiling, dates from the 1950s reconstruction.

Does it still hold services?

Not regularly. It is owned by the technical university and used for ceremonies and concerts, which can close it to visitors on particular days.