"Our Lady Beneath the Chain" for Weathervane Wednesday

 Today's weathervane was photographed in Prague, Hungary.

This Maltese Cross weathervane was photographed at the Our Lady Beneath the Chain church in the Malá Strana neighborhood of Prague in Hungary.  It is very close to the Charles Bridge on Lazenska Street, and around the corner from the John Lennon Wall.  This church was built betweeen 1158 and 1182 and was the headquarters for the Sorvereign Military Order of Malta.  So the Maltese Cross weathervane is very appropriate.

This church got it's strange name for the chain that was placed across the Vltava River (the Moldau) and boats had to pay a toll to the Knights of Malta. This church was once part of a large Gothic fortress.  

This church was one block from our hotel in Prague earlier this summer.  We walked by it several times. It is a few blocks from the Church of Our Lady of Victories, which is also the Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague, another historic site.

The Maltese cross is also the symbol of firefighters, the national symbol for Malta, and the crusaders. 

For the truly curious:

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, " "Our Lady Beneath the Chain" for Weathervane Wednesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 29, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/07/our-lady-beneath-chain-for-weathervane.html: accessed [access date]).