200 Korun St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague was under continuous construction from 1344 until 1929 — nearly six centuries — making its formal completion in the twentieth century a rare case of a medieval building project actually finished. This coin was issued the year after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, when the newly independent Czech Republic was actively reaching for historical anchors to legitimize its statehood.

The Czech National Bank's early commemorative program leaned heavily on architectural subjects, and St. Vitus, as the burial site of Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, was an obvious first choice.