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The main Lesser Town Square surrounds the Baroque Church of St. Mikuláš (St. Nicholas) at 79 metres the dominant building of the Malá Strana (Small Quarter / Lesser Town). In spite of its height the Church does not impress us by its grandeur. The block of buildings at its foot lessens the steepness of its height and it seems to us as if the church is leaning towards the town; in fact the street and the square somehow became part of it.
What a difference from the exclusivity of Gothic churches - embodiments of heavenly cities which by their steepness and height deliberately differ from the teeming, earthly cities standing at their feet!
The church divides the square into two parts, the lower and upper. In the Middle Ages there stood in the centre two churches with a cemetery, a school and small houses of the Lesser Town craftsmen and merchants. Even a little lane ran through here called Ševcovská (Cobblers Lane). In the lower half of the square until 1784 were three rows of butchers shops, one wooden and one grand stone fountain and a pillory. In the upper half used to be shops of seamstresses, goldsmiths, stirrup makers and other craftsmen.
The lower square has retained its bourgeois character up to the present day. We can recognise this best by the numerous arcades under which the business life of the town was concentrated. But the upper square, which is closer to the Castle and more distant from the bustle of the town, after the Battle on the White Mountain became a square of the aristocracy and already lost its arcades in the 17th century.
We start the walk in the lower square. From the three houses directly in front of the church the best is the house U kamenného stolu (At the Stone Table) [No28/5] with the Lesser Town cafe. The facade is in the Rococo style and a cafe was already here in 1794. It used to be called the Radetsky Cafe after the nearby monument to Marshall Radetsky, which stood between 1859-1919 approximately on the site of today's tram stop. After the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic, on the site of today's car park was a monument to the French historian Ernest Denis, who wrote about Czech history. His words about Prague were cited in the introduction to this book. With the coming of fascism the monument had to be removed.
The huge building of the Jesuit College beside St. Nicholas' Church (No.2/25) was completed in 1691 and stands on the site of 18 houses and the Church of St. Wenceslas with a cemetery. Following papal instructions, the Jesuit College was to be spacious, but outwardly lacking in ostentation. Therefore there sprang up here a typical early Baroque, utilitarian building, whose austerity is happily countered by the Church of St. Nicholas.
The wide building on the north side is the former Smiřický Palace (No.6/18). Czech nobleman met here with Albrecht Smiřický on the eve of the Second Prague Defenestration, in order to discuss their course of action against the Catholic Hapsburg faction. Albrecht Smiřický himself was considerd a posssible future Bohemian King. He died however right at the beginning of the uprising of the Estates. In the archway of the house a stone is preserved with little holes for extinguishing torches.
Next comes the Šternberský Palace (No. 7/19), with a Baroque facade built in 1684 by joining two houses together. During the time of Rudolf II this house, set back from the street, used to have an inn for foreign delegations. Accommodated here was the Turkish ambassador Mehmet Beg whose entourage even included a few camels. As previously mentioned the great fire of 1541 which consumed nearly the whole of the Lesser Town, started in this very house, known then as Bašta (Bastion).
On the corner of Letenská Street is the former Lesser Town Town Hall (No.35/21), rebuilt in its present early Baroque style between 1617-1630, probably after designs by Giovanni Mario Filippi. In 1575 the Czech Confession was signed here, an agreement legalising religious toleration in Bohemia. Its text was in its time a unique expression of toleration on the continent of Europe. Until 1828 the building had three onion domes. Next door the house U Splavínů (No.36/22), which used to be a brewery, has a Baroque fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary on the facade. Like most of the Lesser Town breweries, this one did not enjoy a very good reputation; according to legend the beer was tasted by a Lesser Town water sprite who declared that it was no different from the waters of the Vltava. Next is the Kaiserstein Palace (No. 37/23) built in 1630 on the site of two houses and rebuilt in Baroque style in 1700. On the roof are allegories of the four seasons and above the middle window of the first floor can be seen the Kaiserstein coat of arms. In the Palace, between 1908 - 1914, lived the world famous Czech opera singer Ema Destin. In the middle of the 19th century the French geologist Joachim Barrande lived here.
The next houses are in fact a continuation of Mostecká Street. The first is the house U Petržilků (No 272/1), with a Renaissance oriel window. The large classical, galleried courtyard is the result of rebuilding in 1782, and on the balcony is a statue of St. John of Nepomuk from the first half of the 18th century. Next to it is the Štydlovsky house (No. 271/2) - also called At the White Bull - created in 1746 by joining together the house At the Six Pillars and the house At the Three Bears. Between 1436 and 1478 the Lesser Town Town Hall was here. In the narrow Gothic courtyard are still preserved two Gothic cellar prisons with original doors. Within the 65 metre deep courtyard stands a tower from the first fortification of the Lesser Town. It is most easily seen from the courtyard of the house No.299/24 in Karmelitská Street.
We cross Karmelitská Street. Opposite the house U Zlatého hroznu (At the Golden Grapes) [No.267/4] which used to belong to an important Hussite lawyer Jan of Jesenice the defender of Master John Huss, is the tower of St. Nicholas' Church.
This 79 metre tall, baroque bell tower from the first half of the 18th century was the subject of a legal dispute between the Jesuits and the magistrate of the Lesser Town. When the members of the Order were pulling down the old St. Nicholas Church, an agreement was negotiated with the Lesser Town authorities by which the tower of the new Baroque church was to belong to the Lesser Town as recompense for the bell tower of the demolished church. The Jesuits however did not honour the agreement and placed the entrance into the bell tower on the inside of the new building. In the end they lost the case which reached as far as the Emperor, and had to build an entrance onto the street. Above it was placed the sign of the Lesser Town and the Jesuits were not allowed to add their own symbols or saints statues.
We reach the house U zlatého lva (At the Golden Lion) [No.261/10], which is an outstanding example of Renaissance architecture. In 1747 it became the first Prague pawn shop. During Emperor Rudolf II's reign in front of the house was set up a wooden donkey with a sharp back, for the degradation of wrong-doers who were forced to sit on it.
If we continue further the Lesser Town architecture has in store for us one of its theatrical surprises. From a relatively narrow, constricted street we suddenly emerge into the spacious upper Small Town Square with the pillar of the Holy Trinity in the centre. In the distance looms the tower of St. Vítus Cathedral and we enter quite a different world from the lower part of the square.
Through the Hartig Palace (No.259/12), in the corner of the square a passage leads to Tržiště Street. It was originally a little gate in the fortifications of the Lesser Town.
In the time of Emperor Rudolf II a dramatic occurence was played out in front of the Palace. The Kinský lords, friends of Petr Vok of Rožmberk used to live there. A young female relative lived with them to whom the Italian adventurer, Count Belgiozo paid court during assignations beneath the window. One day he was assaulted by Field Marshal Ruswurm and his companions and a footman shot him. The Field Marshal, well known for other misdemeanours, had to answer for it in court. Even though his guilt for the murder was never established, he was, thanks to the intrigues of chamberlain Lang, executed.
The whole of the western side of the square is dominated by the Lichtenštejn Palace (No. 258/13) built after 1621 through the reconstruction of five houses. Governor Karel of Lichtenštejn, well known for the cruel sentences meted out to the 27 Czech noblemen, used to live in the northern corner after the battle of the White Mountain. In the years between 1742-1790 the Palace was leased to the Prague Post Office. From 1811-1826 Josef Dobrovský lived here, a renowned scholar of the Enlightenment.
One's eye is captured above all else by the church of St. Mikuláš (St. Nicholas). It was built between 1704-1756 on the site of a demolished Gothic church of the same name. Three generations of Baroque architects from the same family worked on the building of the church. The church nave was built by Krystof Dientzenhofer, the choir with the cupola by his son Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer and the slender tower by his son-in- law Anselm Lurago. The church which has been mentioned several times before, represents the epitome of the Prague illusionary Baroque style. Its undulating walls constantly evoke the feeling of movement and dynamism. As we pass through the entrance, we notice above it coat of arms of Count Kolovrat, who donated 80,000 pieces of gold for the building of the church.
We find ourselves in a richly decorated interior full of colours and unreal vistas. The ceiling frescos of the main nave are on the theme of, The Celebration of St. Nicholas, by John Lukáš Kracker from 1761 and belongs by its size (approximately 1500 square metres) among the largest in Europe. Let us notice how artfully it creates the illusion of yet more space, as if the church is not enclosed by the ceiling, but is opening directly on to heaven. The nave is decorated with numerous statues (mainly by Ignác František Platzer from 1752-1755) and imitation marble. In the side chapels we see exquisite picture decorations. Let us consider the Chapel of St. Barbora, first on the left, with fine, trompe l'oeil mural paintings representing a window, through which a young Jesuit is looking into the chapel. The altar picture The Crucifiction is by the well known Baroque painter Karel Škréta. In the third chapel on the right we find a famous painting “The death of St. Francis Xavier” by František Xaver Balko. The picture is connected with the theme of the writer Arbes', story “Saint Zavier”. The frescos in the cupola of St. Nicholas' Church (The Celebration of the Holy Trinity) are also by František Xaver Balko from 1751. It seems unbelievable, that the top of the lantern in the centre of the cupola is 18 m higher than the top of the Petřín Tower would be, if it was transported under the cupola. The four large statues of the venerable patriarchs and the gilded statue of St. Nicholas on the main altar are by Ignác František Platzer. On the left of the altar is a wooden Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary of Foyen, transferred here in 1629 by Jesuits from the famous centre of pilgrimage in Belgium.
We end the walk by the Baroque column of the Holy Trinity, erected in 1715 to commemorate the terrible plague, which raged in Prague betweeen 1713-1714. It was carved by the stonemason František Wolfgang Herstorfer after a design by Giovanni Battista Alliprandi. The 20 metre high column is decorated by the statue of the Holy Trinity and statues of the Czech patron saints St. Wenceslas, St. Vojtěch (St. Adalbert), St. Ludmila, St. John of Nepomuk and St. Procopius. The statues were created by the sculptors Jan Oldřich Mayer and Ferdinand Geiger. The three fountains at the foot of the column symbolise the sources of life, charity and salvation.