The building around the chapel
The Klementinum in brief
A short history of the Klementinum, the Prague complex around the Mirror Chapel: a Jesuit college from 1556, an observatory, and today the National Library.
Reserve your seat in the chapel ↗A site older than the college
The Klementinum's history starts with a chapel dedicated to Saint Clement, recorded on the site in the 11th century. A Dominican monastery later stood there. It was heavily damaged in 1420, during the Hussite Wars, and in 1556 the Jesuits took the site over and turned it into a college. The name Klementinum comes from that older dedication, so the complex still carries the memory of the first chapel in its title, nearly five centuries after the Jesuits arrived.
The Jesuit college
In 1622 the Jesuits moved the library of Charles University to the Klementinum, and in 1654 the college merged with the university. The main building phase ran from 1709 to 1726, and it produced the Baroque library. The Mirror Chapel, built between 1722 and 1726, belongs to the same wave of work. At one time the Klementinum was known as the third-largest Jesuit college in the world, which tells you how much of the Old Town it once occupied.
Observatory, library and university
The Jesuits remained until their suppression in 1773, when Empress Maria Theresa made the Klementinum an observatory, a library and a university. The National Library was founded in 1781, and from 1782 the Klementinum was a legal deposit library. Weather readings began to be collected here regularly in 1775, which gives Prague some of the oldest continuous meteorological observations in Europe, and the record continues today.
Today's National Library
In 1918 the newly established Czechoslovak state took over the library, and since 1990 the Klementinum has housed the National Library of the Czech Republic. It holds a collection of Mozartiana, material on Tycho Brahe and Comenius, and historic examples of Czech literature. The complex covers about 20,000 square metres and is the second-largest building complex in Prague. In 2005 the library received the UNESCO Memory of the World Jikji prize, an award for documentary heritage and its preservation.
Names attached to the place
Prague City Tourism notes that Albert Einstein held lectures at the Klementinum and that Mozart played here many times. The Baroque Library holds about 27,000 old printed works, among them writings by Kepler with his handwritten dedication to friends and fellow professors. The National Library also keeps material on Tycho Brahe and Comenius. For a complex that most visitors know from a single concert hall or one tower, the roll of names shows how much learning has passed through it.
The tour, and how it differs from the concert
Since 2023 the Klementinum's baroque route has been run by Prague City Tourism, a company owned by the City of Prague. The guided tour takes in the Baroque Library, which you may view but not enter, and the Astronomical Tower, with its period instruments and a gallery at the top. The Mirror Chapel is separate: it is open only during events, so the concert is the way into the room, and the tour is a different ticket. Visitors under 15 may enter the tour only with an adult.
Where the chapel fits
The Mirror Chapel is one of the Klementinum's treasures, a room of mirrors, gilt and frescoes inside a complex mostly known for its library and tower. It sits in the fourth courtyard, in the wing connecting the Astronomical Tower to the northern wing along Platnéřská street. That position, tucked inside the complex, is why first-time visitors often need a minute to find the right entrance on the evening of a concert, and why leaving a little extra time is sensible.
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