St. Vitus Cathedral

They started building this cathedral in 1344 and didn't finish until 1929 — nearly six hundred years of construction, which has to be some kind of European record for a building that nobody could agree was done. The first architect, Matthias of Arras, died in 1352 with only the foundations and lower walls completed. His successor, a 23-year-old prodigy named Petr Parlér, took over and gave the cathedral its soaring Gothic vaults before dying in 1399. Then the Hussite Wars erupted and construction ground to a halt for centuries.

For most of its existence, the cathedral was essentially half-finished — a magnificent Gothic choir attached to a temporary wall where the nave should have been. Generation after generation of Czechs grew up seeing this glorious ruin and shrugging. It wasn't until the 1870s that the Union for the Completion of St. Vitus Cathedral finally rallied enough money and national pride to finish the job, completing the western facade in a neo-Gothic style that blends almost seamlessly with the 14th-century original.

Inside, the cathedral is a treasury of Czech history. The St. Wenceslas Chapel, encrusted with over 1,300 semi-precious stones and medieval frescoes, guards the entrance to the Crown Chamber. Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors are buried in the Royal Crypt beneath the floor. And the enormous stained-glass window by Alphonse Mucha — yes, the Art Nouveau poster artist — glows with a jewel-like intensity that stops even the most jaded tourist in their tracks.

The cathedral dominates Prague's skyline from nearly every angle. It's the largest and most important church in the country, and those 600 years of effort show in every flying buttress and gargoyle.