The church was built in 1611 - 12 by German Lutherans, and it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. We do not know the name of the architect of this first Baroque building in Prague. However, the building is a close resemblance of a church in Neubirg at the Danube by Rudolf’s royal artist Josef Heintz. It is likely that his concept was completed by an imperial architect Giovanni Maria Filippi. After the victory of the counter-reformation, Ferdinand II donated the church in 1624 to the order of Discalced Carmelites, who had merit in the victory of the imperial army at the Battle of Bílá hora. This order dedicated the church to Virgin Mary of Victory, re-built it and built a monastery nearby. The existing front was built in 1636 - 1644 at the expense of General Baltasar de Marradas. Originally, when the Lutheran Protestants dwelled here, the entrance to the church was on the side towards Petrín, and the altar headed east, customarily. To distinguish the Catholic style from the original Protestants, the entrance to the church was later built on the opposite side, i.e. from today’s Karmelitská Street. However, the Baroque style gradually placed more emphasis on the building as such than on the church’s traditional orientation. The Carmelites built an organ-loft in the originally simple single-aisle church, as well as a deep chancel, and they added a tower. By the monastery, they established a Seminar garden, where they kept frogs and fish in artificial ponds as food for the fasting periods. The Carmelite monastery was abolished in 1784 during the reign of Joseph II, and the church fell into the administration of the Maltese knights. At present, it is again administered by the Carmelites.
Since 1628, the world famous statue of Infant Jesus of Prague has been installed in the church, known in Catholic countries as Bambino di Praga. In the mid-16th century, the statue was brought to Bohemia by the bride of Vratislav of Pernštejn, Maria Maxmiliana Manriquez de Lara. She later dedicated the statue to her daughter Polyxena on the occasion of her wedding with Vilém of Rožmberk as a means of protection of their family circle. Only after Vilém died and Polyxena remarried with Zdenek Popel of Lobkowicz did she have a son named Václav Eusebius. The statue was traditionally to be passed on to a daughter, and so Polyxena donated it to the Carmelite order. Later on, the statue became legendary for its miraculous help during plague, plundering, etc. because the monastery remained unaffected on several occasions. During the Thirty Years’ War, the statue was lost and it was discovered again in 1638 behind the altar with its hands knocked off, and it had to be repaired. In 1651 it was taken in a procession all over Prague and it was attributed the name Gracious Infant Jesus of Prague. When the monastery was abolished, Infant Jesus was taken care of by the nuns from the order of English virgins. People have always turned to the statue with pleas for help, and it is most worshipped in Spain, Italy, countries of Latin America and in the Philippines. The statue of Infant Jesus even helped the missionaries in uniting the Philippines 400 years ago. The gift of the copy of Infant Jesus meant a common idol to the islands permanently stricken by fighting, and this idol meant unification.
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The author of this painting is Václav Jansa. You can find this painting in book 'Starou Prahou Václava Jansy' (
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Vaclav Jansa (October 22, 1859 Slatinice - June 29, 1913 Cernošice) (
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Jansa was apprenticed to buyers, but later he devoted himself to his hobby of drawing and painting. Vaclav Jansa traveled a lot and took to painting landscapes. He painted mostly southern Bohemia and Giant Mountains. Since 1893 was redeveloped historic districts of Prague, Prague ghetto and parts of the Old and New Town. In this time Jansa painted cca 150 colored watercolors documenting disappearing part of the city.