# Interior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PARLER, Peter]() - Date: 1351-1400 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary During the reign of Charles IV \(king of Bohemia from 1346, emperor 1355--78\) Prague was effectively a fixed capital of the German Empire. The foundation stone for the St. Vitus's Cathedral was laid in 1344. The first architect was Mathieu d'Arras \(1290-1352\) who designed the ground plan for the choir and built part of the ambulatory and the radiating chapels. After his death the young Peter Parler \(1330-1399\) introduced truly modern architecture into the construction. In the interior the elevation of the apse is based on that of Cologne Cathedral, but is of a simpler design, built on five \(rather than seven\) sides of a ten-sided polygon. The composition as a whole is dominated by vertical elements. The picture shows the choir by Peter Parler. View the <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/support/plans/p/parler/vitus.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">ground plan</a> of the choir, St. Vitus's Cathedral, Prague. ## Related artworks - [Anna von Schweidnitz]() - [Head of Charles IV]() - [Self-Portrait]() - [Self-Portrait]() - [Self-Portrait]() - [Tomb of Ottokar I]() - [Tomb of Ottokar II]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()