St Peter’s Town Bell-tower A picturesque view of the Lesser Town houses and square is the reward for climbing 215 steps to the tower gallery of the adjacent Baroque church of St Nicholas, 65 metres above street level. The bell-tower, dating from 1755, served as a fire watchtower and a clock tower. From the 1960s, Communist State Security ran another kind of watch here, to monitor Western embassies situated in the vicinity. The bell- or watchtower right next to the church was built by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The tower was owned by the Town, not the Church, as borne out by the Lesser Town emblem above its entrance. In 1891 the fire patrol function ended, after which the watchman only took care of the clock mechanism. The watchman’s previous remit had been to ring the bell and point out the direction of any fire from the gallery, with a red banner by day, or a lantern by night. The watchman’s lodgings eventually came to be occupied by the painter Jan Vochoč, known for his vistas of Hradčany Castle and Lesser Town rooftops. Malostranské náměstí 556/29 110 00 Praha 1 Opening Hours May - June (Mon - Sun) 10.00 - 18.00 July - August (Mon - Sun) 9.00 - 21.00 September (Mon - Sun) 10.00 - 19.00 October - November (Mon - Sun) 10.00 - 18.00 +420 775 400 052 tourinfo@prague.eu www.prague.eu/svatomikulasskazvonice