The Church of St. James the Greater was begun in 1232 for the Minorites in Prague's Old Town. Its founding is tied to relics acquired by Ottokar I of Bohemia. A fire in 1366 led to a Gothic rebuilding, and another fire in 1689, during the Nine Years' War, destroyed that church. It was rebuilt in the Baroque style with more than twenty altars and facade stucco figures by Ottavio Mosto.
Altarpieces were painted by Jan Jiri Heinsch, Vaclav Vavrinec Reiner and Petr Brandl. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach designed the Baroque tomb of Count Vratislav of Mitrovice, whose remains were moved to Prague in 1714. Near the tomb hangs a mummified forearm, linked by legend to a jewel thief.
The organ dates from 1705 and was built by Abraham Starka. After several rebuilds, the present instrument has four manuals, 91 stops and 8,277 pipes. Pope Paul VI made the church a minor basilica in 1974.
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