Late Middle Ages · Europe · Religion

1344

Charles IV of Bohemia founds the archbishopric of Prague

1344

Eager to free his Bohemian kingdom from German ecclesiastical oversight, Charles persuaded Clement VI to elevate Prague to an archdiocese independent of the Mainz metropolitan. He laid the cornerstone of the new Gothic cathedral on Hradcany hill the same year. Bohemia would become the cultural heart of the empire under his rule.