Bach's Requiem in the Church of St. Nicholas

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Bach’s Requiem

The Church of St. Nicholas sits in the middle of the Little Quarter. With its large dome it is quite a landmark. Construction on St. Nicholas began in 1703 and the finishing touches were made in 1769. As we walked past we saw that Bach’s Requiem was scheduled to be performed at 7:00 [1900] this evening.

“Do you want to go?” Nancy asked.

“Why not?” I replied.

We walked up the steps and bought two tickets. It was 6:00 at that time and we had not eaten our evening meal yet. [Nancy-Bill had given me the money and I bought the tickets. Just as I finished handing over the money and got the tickets in my hand, someone opened the church door. I belatedly realized we were going to be sitting for an hour in a place whose temperature closely resembled the North Pole. We probably would have been smarter to have waited until mid-June when it was hot outside so we could have enjoyed the temperature inside. During the concert, I pulled my arms inside my vest, wrapped a scarf around my neck and felt half way warm. Now I understand why many church concerts advertise-HEATED!]

“What time does the door open?” I asked.

“At fifteen til the hour,” was the reply.

“We need to get something to eat that won't take long,” Nancy said.

There are restaurants all over this part of town, but we did not have time for a sit-down dinner. This was not the time for a leisurely meal.

“There is the Subway shop just around the corner,” I said.

“That’s fast,” Nancy said, “let’s go there.

Yes there are Subway sandwich shops, McDonalds and KFC’s in Prague. If you even visit Prague and have time go to a restaurant and get really good food, don’t waste your time and money on junk food here. Actually the ‘junk food’ is not cheap here. Oh, and there is a Czech fast food chain, Croccdille, which has much better sandwiches than the fast food establishments mentioned above, and their prices are much more reasonable. We got our turkey sub on dark bread, ate it quickly and rushed out.

We returned to the Church of St. Nicholas for the concert. The huge stone structure still holds the chill of winter. It felt like a meat storage locker and I [Bill] had no sweater with me. But I survived.

I have never been in a church with such violent statues. I have found an explanation of only one and that is of St. Cyril killing the devil with his crozier. Frankly, I didn’t know that ever happened as it seems the devil is alive and well in our own day and time. But then, what do I know………………? Note, a crozier is a staff with a crook or cross at the end, carried by or before an abbot, bishop, or archbishop as a symbol of office. I guess a crozier with a crook at one end is much like a shepherd’s staff.


There are other huge statues showing various kings and popes dispatching some evil person, the devil or a heretic. I really do not know which and so far, though I have searched the net and looked in several guidebooks I have not found an explanation of these statues.[The church is impressive when you step inside because of its size and the many 'decorations' but the longer you sit and look at them the less attractive the church appears. Someone must have been slightly mad to have decorated a worship space with such violence. It is NOT a place I would choose to visit again. This is a definite waste of your time for anything except a concert.]

The concert was great. In a building such as St. Nichols there must be a thousand echoes as the choir sings and the orchestra plays. It is a beautiful sound, but for me, the words are impossible for me to distinguish or understand. Of course, I could not understand the words of Bach’s requiem anyway as I am limited to English.

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