This Gothic cathedral, the spiritual symbol of the Czech state, was founded in 1344 on the site of the original Romanesque rotunda. The construction took nearly 600 years and was finally completed in 1929. Its impressive interior is home to such wonders as the beautifully decorated St Wenceslas Chapel with the tomb of St Wenceslas, the crypt where Czech kings are buried, and the Crown Chamber, where the Crown Jewels are kept. The main and the largest Prague temple, spiritual symbol of the Bohemian state. It has been built in place where the episcopate was located, and later the archiepiscopate. In the choir, there is the bishops’ tribune, or cathedra, thus the term cathedral.
On the 23rd April 1997, Cardinal Miroslav Vlk issued a decree on the basis of which the object acquired its original name again, Cathedral of St. Vitus, Václav and Vojtěch. The cathedral has been consecrated to three saints: Prince Václav (canonized later) established the third church at the Castle around 925 - Rotunda of St. Vitus. He did so because he received a precious relic as a gift from the Saxon Emperor Henry I the Fowler - a bone from St. Vitus’ arm, which was deposited in the built rotunda. When St. Václav was murdered, the rotunda became a place of his tomb, and he himself became a patron and saint of all Czechs. His sanctuary is still here today. The third saint to whom the cathedral has been consecrated is St. Vojtěch (or Adalbert), the second Bohemian bishop, killed during a missionary journey to the Prussians at the Elbe valley. His remains were brought back in 1039 and buried in the annex building to the rotunda.