Saint James's Chapel, Bratislava

Saint James's Chapel
Kaplnka svätého Jakuba
General information
TypeChapel, Ossuary
Architectural styleRomanesque, Gothic
LocationBratislava, Slovakia
AddressNámestie SNP, Bratislava (no assigned address)
Coordinates48°8′44.2″N 17°6′36.98″E / 48.145611°N 17.1102722°E / 48.145611; 17.1102722
Construction started11th / 12th century
CompletedGothic chapel from the 15th century
Demolished1529

Saint James's Chapel (Slovak: Kaplnka sv. Jakuba) is a ruined gothic chapel and surviving ossuary discovered underneath Námeste SNP in the center of Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1994. It is the oldest sacral medieval structure and the only ossuary in Bratislava.

First incarnation of this building comes from the 11th – 12th centuries, built as a chapel consecrated to Saint Lawrence atop an old cemetery located between today's Stará tržnica and Manderlák buildings, historically just outside the city walls. Later, it was rebuilt in romanesque and gothic styles and consecrated to St James the Greater. The chapel is often mistakenly called St Jacob's. The confusion arises because Slovak, like many other languages, uses the sane word for both James and Jacob.

A glass structure in a metal frame, at first intended to be temporary, was constructed above the site in 1995. The chapel and ossuary are inaccessible to the public; guided tours are allowed in for four hours twice a year with the maximum yearly capacity of approximately 900 visitors.