Basilica of St James

From outside it looks like any other church, but the Basilica of St James the Greater keeps one of Prague's most macabre stories. Its origins go back to 1232, when King Wenceslas I laid the foundation stone of a friary for the Franciscan Minorites, who still look after it.

1A fire and a new church

In 1689 a fire ruined the Gothic church. Jan Šimon Pánek rebuilt it in Baroque style in about twelve years, and the stuccoist Ottavio Mosto modelled the facade reliefs of St Francis, St James and St Anthony between 1695 and 1701. Inside is one of the largest organs in the Czech Republic, with more than eight thousand pipes.

2The thief's arm

Beside the entrance there really is a mummified human forearm. Tradition says a thief hid one night to steal the jewels from a statue of the Virgin; when he touched it, she seized his arm and would not let go. In the morning the butchers, whose guild protected the church, had to cut it off to free him, and they hung it there as a warning.

The arm exists and you can see it; whose it was and how it got there, nobody has documented.

3The count who knocked

The sumptuous tomb of Chancellor Jan Václav Vratislav of Mitrovice, by Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff to a design by Fischer von Erlach (1714–1716), has its own legend: it is said he was buried alive and that knocking was heard from the crypt.

4What to look for

• The mummified arm, high up on the right as you enter.
• The three stucco reliefs on the facade.
• The length of the nave, one of the longest in Prague.