A church has stood on Petrov hill since at least the 11th and 12th centuries, with a Romanesque chapel and crypt around 1140 and a larger basilica around the 1230s. After the Hussite Wars it was rebuilt in the 15th century on a cross-shaped plan. A fire started by Swedish troops in 1643 destroyed the buildings on the hill, and it was rebuilt in early Baroque style.
The article describes the exterior shell as Gothic, mostly from the 14th century, and the interior as mostly Baroque. August Prokop directed the Gothic-style presbytery, chapel and sacristy from 1879 to 1891. August Kirstein designed the twin Gothic Revival towers, built from 1901 to 1909, each 84 meters (276 feet) high.
The bells ring at 11 a.m. instead of noon. A legend ties this to a Swedish siege, in which citizens rang the bells an hour early, and the article presents it as legend.
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