Church of Our Lady Victorious (Infant Jesus)

This small Baroque church in Mala Strana contains one of the most venerated Catholic objects in the world: a 45-centimeter wax statue of the infant Christ that has been credited with miracles since the 17th century and is worshipped by millions of Catholics from Spain to the Philippines. The Infant Jesus of Prague is essentially a religious celebrity — it has its own wardrobe of approximately 46 robes, changed about ten times a year according to the liturgical calendar, and its own pair of golden crowns.

The statue arrived in Bohemia in the mid-16th century, brought from Spain as a wedding gift. It eventually ended up in the hands of Polyxena of Lobkowicz, who donated it to the Carmelite friars in 1628. During the Thirty Years' War, the statue was lost, found behind an altar in 1638 with its hands broken off, and restored. The miraculous reputation grew from there, and by the 18th century, pilgrims were arriving from across Europe.

The church itself has its own interesting history. It was originally built by German Lutherans in 1611-12 and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. After the Catholic Habsburgs crushed the Bohemian Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, the Lutherans were expelled, and the Carmelites took over in 1624. They renamed it Our Lady Victorious — a pointed celebration of Catholic triumph.

The building is easy to miss from the street. It sits along busy Karmelitska street without much fanfare, which makes the contrast more striking when you step inside and find a globally significant pilgrimage site packed with devoted visitors from Latin America, the Philippines, and southern Europe.