When building New Town, Charles IV ensured that monasteries and churches were represented, which in some way referred to Rome or even to his own mystical experience. The sacred consecration of the newly emerging city of Prague found its expression in an imaginary cross formed by the connecting lines between six churches in the New Town, through which the newly emerging city was de facto blessed. The Church of St Apollinaris stands at the intersection of these lines. The vertical beam of the cross is formed by the connecting lines between Church of St Catherine, the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary at Na Slupi, and the Basilica of St Peter and Paul at Vyšehrad. The horizontal beam of the cross is drawn by connecting the Emauzy Monastery and the Church in Karlov. Each of the churches also has some connection to Charles as the secular head of the Christian empire or to events in his life. The church dedicated to St Apollinaris refers to the Italian city of Ravenna, where St Apollinaris served as bishop and which was the seat of Roman emperors for a certain period of time. The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St Charles the Great in Prague’s Karlov district is dedicated to Charlemagne, the first medieval emperor of the Roman Empire. Its octagonal floor plan references the coronation church in Aachen, where Charlemagne is buried and where Charles IV was crowned Holy Roman King. The dedication of Church of St Catherine refers to the first great battle at San Felice in Italy, in which the young Charles won victory on St Catherine’s Day. From then on, he considered Saint Catherine his personal patron saint. The Emazy Monastery, dedicated to St Adalbert, St Prokop, St Cyril and Methodius, and St Jerome, who was also considered a Slav, had special significance for Charles IV in the network of New Town shrines. This was also related to the fact that Charles IV invited Croatian Benedictines to the monastery to cultivate liturgy in the Old Slavonic language. They thus continued the legacy of Cyril and Methodius and Prokop, who was the abbot of the first Czech monastery with Slavic liturgy in Sázava. Charles IV perceived the historic Vyšehrad castle with its Basilica of St Peter and Paul as the place where his legendary ancestors lived and ruled, especially Přemysl the Ploughman, founder of the Přemyslid dynasty, from which Charles’ mother Eliška Přemyslovna came. That is why Vyšehrad played an important role in the coronation order, which Charles IV himself wrote and observed. On the eve of his coronation as King of Bohemia, Charles IV symbolically received Přemysl the Ploughman’s bast shoes and purse at Vyšehrad as the direct successor to his legacy. Karel IV. | Zdroj: Prague City Tourism The last of the six is the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary at Na Slupi with the Servite monastery. Charles IV was well acquainted with the Florentine Order of Servants of Mary, having stayed with them in Florence when he was taken ill during one of his journeys. According to legend, he promised that, in gratitude for his recovery, he would establish a monastery for the Servites in Prague as well. Other churches in New Town founded by Charles IV also bear similar spiritual references to Rome or the Roman Empire. Charles IV founded the Monastery of St. Ambrose on the site of today’s U Hybernů house; its prototype was a basilica of the same dedication, where Charles IV was crowned with the Iron Crown of the Lombard kings. The Church of St Henry in Jindřišská Street points towards Bamberg in Bavaria, where the Roman Emperor Henry and his wife Kunhuta are buried, perhaps the only royal couple ever to be canonised. Finally, the Church of Our Lady of the Snows in New Town refers to the oldest Roman basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore, which is also called Our Lady of the Snows.