Dominican monastery
The oldest monument in Český Budějovice, built when the city was established
Three-aisled cathedral with a convent. A tower was added in the second half of the 15th century. The cathedral burnt down several times but managed to preserve its original early gothic look.
Wall paintings in the interior are extraordinarily valuable; some of them date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The church is connected to the convent buildings by a corridor that is arched with gorgeous Gothic cross vaults. In some vault bolts there are coats of arms of the noblemen who contributed to the operation of the convent with their gifts. The corridor forms a cloister which closes the convent garden, the so-called paradise court, from four sides.
A Gothic stone gargoyle that looks like a monster reminding us of a frog sticks out of the wall of the Church of the Sacrifice of Our Lady. There is a legendconcerning this strange sculpture which says that a frog crawled into the foundations of the church during its construction and repeatedly caused the church walls to crumble. In the end, the frog was hounded out of the foundations. It is said that its sculpture in the wall used to be placed lower, but the stone frog has been crawling upwards step by step until it reaches the roof and then the church will collapse and it will be the end of the world.