St. Nicholas Church

Saint Nicholas church is the most famous Baroque church in Prague. Before the church towers were built by the Jesuit college designers it was a Gothic parish built in 1283. The towers and facade were added to the church and the Pope declared the church the main parish of the Lesser Town in 1775. The construction of the church lasted for one hundred years, and consisted of three generations of Baroque architects within the same family. All of the paintings, sculptures, and carvings one can see in the church are from the 17th and 18th centuries. During the Soviet regime the church was secretly used as a place from which to spy on the local townspeople. If the guard on watch saw something he didn't like he would call that person or persons for an interrogation. At the top of the church there is a small room in the tallest steeple that no one was aware of at the time. Only after the Soviet regime had ended the room was discovered by church goers and its dark history revealed.

http://www.stnicholas.cz/en/