The St. Nicholas Bell Tower is a national cultural monument. Interestingly, it was the last belfry in Prague. It is adjacent to the Church of St. Nicholas, built by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. Anselmo Lurago merely completed it according to the former’s plans in 1755. The height of the tower is identical to the height of the adjacent cathedral dome. The gallery, now open to the public, is 65 m high and has 215 steps. The tower belonged to the municipality, not to the church, which is expressed by the Lesser Town coat of arms above the entrance. That is also why it has a house number (556), which church buildings usually do not have. The tower also has a separate entrance from the square. Since the Middle Ages, it was customary for church bell towers to be built by municipalities. In 1891, the last town crier, whose function was to ring the bell in the case of fire and to show the direction of the fire from the window with a red ribbon (or a lantern at night), moved out. Later, the painter Jan Vochoč resided here, and painted mainly Hradčany and the roofs of Lesser Town. From the beginning of the 1950s until the fall of the communist regime, the State Secret Service maintained an observation post in the tower from which they chiefly monitored movements at the embassies of Western countries. In 1996-1997, the outer façade was reconstructed and the interior was adapted for public access. The clock with a six-metre face and a wrought-iron railing as old as the bell tower itself were also restored. It was opened to the public on 9 August 1997. Its symbol is in its very name – the bell.
