The Passage Saint Wenceslas Used

The parish church of Saint Michael stood below the ramparts of Prague Castle with a graveyard all around it; it is first named in 1354. Because a drain for rainwater from the castle moat later ran past here, a legend arose that there was a secret underground passage from the castle — and that Saint Wenceslas used it to go from the castle to the church of Saint Michael with his companion Podiven when Drahomíra persecuted him; he is said to have founded the church himself. This church too fell into ruin in the Hussite period and had no parish priests; mass was said there by the clergy of Saint Nicholas's. Afterwards the right of presentation was held by the chapter, until in 1464 the Lesser Town people appropriated it and sang songs there mocking bishops and cardinals.