The Choir Loft at the Ascension

Bartoš's Czech Chronicle relates under the year 1509: “When it was Thursday, the day of the Lord's Ascension, and the monks at Saint Thomas's meant to make a spectacle for the people by drawing an image upward in the church in likeness of the ascension of the Lord Christ into heaven, the choir loft with the multitude upon it suddenly gave way and crashed down on the others who were below it in the pews, and crushed some to death and not a few to injury and lameness; and had they not fallen into the pews, it is to be feared that scarcely anyone would have come out of it whole.” And Hájek adds that many erring people in Prague felt great gratitude and particular satisfaction at this occurrence.