The Church of Our Lady before Týn is on the opposite side of the square. It was founded at the end of John of Luxemburg's reign, continued after 1380 by the works of Peter Parléř (who also worked on St. Vitus' cathedral). The towers are 80 meters high and end in 4 turrets and spires each with 4 smaller turrets. Between the turrets is a late Gothic gable. There used to be a statue of the Hussite King George of Poděbrady and a Hussite chalice on this gable. This meant that this church believed in the Protestant Reformation. John Huss' predecessors preached in the church: Konrád Waldhauser and Jan Milíč of Kroměříž, and even the representative of the radical wing of the German reformation, Tomáš Műnzer. After the Battle of the White Mountain (1620) the statue was torn down and replaced with a statue of the Virgin Mary in 1623, and her halo was made from the chalice.

Church of Our Lady before Týn

On a purely personal note, I was intrigued by the look of these spires with their extra pointed turrets stuck on the side, as if the architect took a look at the plans and said, "Not enough spiky things! I need more spiky things here!!" (For the fans of Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato reading this, I imagined that this might be what early Gamilon architecture might look like...)