Two tall towers of church of the Virgin Mary before Týn look down in a majestic way into the area of the Old Town Square to human hustle and bustle deeply below them. Together with the representative western frontage they could talk about numerous historical events which occurred during many centuries in the very heart of Prague. Monumentality of this sacral architecture especially shines in the festive evening and night illumination. Perhaps everybody would feel respect and admiration for the work of our ancestors. Church of the Virgin Mary before Týn, a gothic three-nave building with two towers in the frontage, is standing between the Old Town Square and Týnská, Štupartská and Celená Streets. The original Romanesque church was reconstructed to an early-gothic one and it was radically re-built in the last third of the 14th century and at the beginning of the 15th century with participation of building work of the builder of St Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle, Petr Parléř. Portal with excellent relief decoration on the northern side comes from that period. Top parts of the towers and the frontage gable were completed in the second half of the 15th century and at the beginning of the 16th century. After fire, the central nave was newly vaulted in 1679. The north burnt tower also had to be repaired after a flash stroke in it on 29th July 1819. The famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), a forceful personality of Prague in Rudolf era, is buried in the church. The appropriate marble epitaph is placed at his tomb on the adjacent column.
