On April 9, 1942, during an afternoon air-raid, a 200 kg Luftwaffe bomb pierced the dome and fell among a congregation of more than 300 people awaiting early evening mass but did not explode. The detonator was removed and a replica bomb is now displayed as a memorial.
One version of this event described in Wikipedia states that, upon opening the bomb, it was found to be filled with sand instead of explosive and contained a note saying "greetings from Plzeň" from the workers at Škoda Works in the German-occupied Czechoslovakia who had allegedly sabotaged its production.
If you look carefully at the photo of the dome you can see the area where it has been repaired – to help I have placed a circle around the spot.

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