overview opening hours about the place Bethlehem Chapel in Žižkov is an unassuming, yet extremely interesting building hid-den in the courtyard of a gallery apartment building. Its design, by Emil Králíček, was inspired by Cubist shapes. opening hours Regular Church Services: Sun 9:30 more about opening hours opening hours Regular Church Services: Sun 9:30 history By the time the chapel was to be built, there were no vacant plots left in the centre of what is now old Žižkov, and so the congregation bought a house in Prokopova ulice known as “U Generála Zacha”, built in 1870 by the entrepreneur František Horn. On the newly purchased plot, there was a pit left from earlier sand extraction that had been filled with rubble from the clearance of Prague’s Old Town. As the subsoil was unsuitable for direct building, a concrete slab was installed to provide the necessary structural base before work began. It is interesting to note that we are not certain about the name of the chapel’s architect, although it was most probably Emil Králíček, who was working at the time for Matěj Blecha’s company. The company designed the building in 1912 and erected it in 1913—1914. Králíček’s use of Cubist forms in a religious building has no parallel anywhere else in the world. The chapel’s history also includes one telling detail: local residents were far from enthusiastic about the project and took legal steps to try to stop it. They failed, and on the day of the assassination in Sarajevo — 28 June 1914 — the chapel was officially opened. In the decades that followed, the chapel underwent a number of alterations. Offices were added in 1928, and ten years later a sacristy and bell tower were built to a design by the architect Bohumír Kozák. The bell placed in the tower was a gift from the Evangelical community in the Swiss municipality of Balgach, and the sacristy was named the Swiss Hall in their honour. During the Prague Uprising, German troops firing from Vítkov damaged the side wall of the front building. A memorial plaque commemorates the victims of the German occupation, above all the murdered Fafek family, who had aided the Czechoslovak paratroopers. The Bethlehem Chapel was also slated for demolition as part of the redevelopment schemes of the 1970s. However, thanks to the efforts of František Potměšil, the pastor at the time, the building was declared a cultural monument in 1975, prompting a reassessment of the plans to demolish it. In 1992, students from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague decorated the interior with Cubist motifs, and extensive restoration work was carried out between 1996 and 2006. In addition to serving religious purposes, the chapel also hosts concerts. It belongs to the congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.