Up to the 1870s, Moravian Ostrava had only one church – the parish church of St Wenceslas. However, the enormous boom in population during the second half of the 19th century soon led to an urgent need for a new place of worship, and in the autumn of 1877 it was decided to build a church. The new church was constructed in 1883-9 to a design by the Diocesan architect Gustav Meretta of the Olomouc Archbishopric. The neo-Renaissance basilica, with three naves, is the second largest church in Moravia and Silesia, and in 1996 was consecrated as the Cathedral of the Ostrava-Opava Diocese by Pope John Paul II.