Navalis water celebrations get underway in Prague

The annual Navalis festival celebrating Saint John of Nepomuk gets underway in Prague on Thursday. For the first time, the Patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, is attending as the main guest.

The festivities will include a blessing of pilgrims, a mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, a procession across Charles Bridge, a regatta, parachute jump, and an evening baroque concert on the river.

The event honours one of the best-known Czech saints, a patron of bridges and people connected to water, who is also one of Venice’s patron saints. His legacy continues to link the two cities.