THE SAINT WENCESLAUS´S CROWN

The Saint Wenceslaus’s Crown

The Royal Crown is the oldest part of the still existing Crown Jewels, which was used for the first time during the coronation of Charles IV, King of Bohemia in Prague on 2 September 1347. This newly appointed royal crown, which retained the original lily-shaped form of the Przemyslid crown, was, on Charles’s special request, given outstanding protection in a Bull proclaimed by Pope Clement IV on 6 May 1346 in Avignon. This papal Bull stressed that the royal crown was to be deposited for all times on the head of the Przemyslid prince St. Wenceslaus, regarded as the patron saint of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In that manner Prince Wenceslaus, who had been murdered in the 10th century, became the symbolic guardian of the Royal Crown of Bohemia. Since that time, the jewel called the Saint Wenceslaus’s Crown had been deposited in the vicinity of the saint’s tomb in St. Vitus’s cathedral at Prague Castle.