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 Bishop of Prague, the martyred Adalbert, had been also buried here, it was for a time known as ‘the Church of St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert.’

This first church, which was probably of very modest dimensions, soon became too small for the pious visitors who wished to venerate there the relics of Wenceslas and the martyred Bishop of Prague. The church which, to use the words of Monsignore Lehner, had become ‘the metropolitan church of the whole Bohemian empire’ —then extending further than at almost any other period—remained insufficient even when a smaller church or chapel adjoining it had been erected. Prince Spytihnev II., therefore, resolved to build a larger church on the Hradcany Hill, and, space being very restricted, he demolished the old building of Wenceslas to make room for the new church, which, like the previous one, was in the

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