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Old Town - Via Celetná Street to the Old Town Square
Total distance: 0.6 km, Updated: over 2 years ago
All Prague Old Town Walking Tours:
- Through the history of the principal town of the kingdom
- Via Celetná Street to the Old Town Square
- Between Husova Street and the Vltava
We enter the Old Town from Náměstí Republiky (Square of the Republic) via the Prašná Brána (Powder Tower), through which led the road to Kutná Hora and eastern Bohemia. The Tower was built after 1475 by the late gothic architect Matěj Rejsek on the site of the Odraná Gate. Originally it was called the Mountain Gate and it acquired the name Powder Tower only in the 17th century, when a store of gunpowder was kept there. Most of the original stone decoration have been destroyed over time. The torsos of some figures can be seen in the interior, on the first floor. Several scenes by Rejsek on the facade which have been preserved, have a rather playful character: on the ground floor at the south-east corner a young man offers a girl a purse of money for an obvious service and on the west side, under the modern statue of Přemysl Otakar II, a girl is depicted slapping a young man, who is reaching under her skirt. A large part of the modern decoration comes from the faithful restoration, which was carried out by Josef Mocker between 1875-1886.
Next to the Tower used to be the Royal Court, the short lived residence of the Czech rulers. It was founded by King Wenceslas IV and was inhabited later by the Emperors Zikmund of Luxembourg and Albrecht Hapsburg, King Ladislav Pohrobek (Posthumous) and George of Poděbrady. In the end King Vladislav Jagellon moved from here back to the Castle in 1483. Later on the court deteriorated and in the 17th century an archbishop's seminary with the Church of St. Vojtěch was established on its site and then later again it became a barracks. Between 1902-1903 the complex was demolished and in its place now are the houses between Celetná and Královodvorská Streets.
At the beginning of Celetná Street, on the right is the Pachta Palace (No.585/31), rebuilt in Baroque style by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. On the facade are stucco busts of the Empress Maria Theresa and Francis of Lotharingia. The next house U zlatého anděla (At the Golden Angel)[No. 588/29], used to be a prominent hotel, where for instance the Danish and Greek Queens stayed, as did also the Kings Of Saxony and Hanover. In 1848 the Russian anarchist Michael Bakunin had a room there. During the revolution of that year, the Prague revolutionary headquarters were based there.
Opposite, in place of the former court of the Bohemian Queens, stands the New Mint (No.587/36). Coins were minted here between 1539-1784. From the original building, a Baroque portal has survived with figures of Kutná Hora miners. In the 19th century it housed the Prague military headquarters, and in front of it, on 12 June 1848, the first clash occurred between Prague citizens and soldiers from the garrison of Count Windischgratz. A random shot into the windows of the house killed his wife, the Countess Windischgratz.
Behind the neo-classical facade of the house called V Templu (In the Temple) [No.589/27], the core of the abolished Church of the Conversion of St. Paul is hidden. It stood here probably in the 13th century and belonged to the Order of the Templars. Later on next to the church, a hospital was established and after its demise, a coffee house, which was frequented by Karel Havlíček Borovský after his return from exile in Brixen.
A commemorative plaque on the neighbouring house U čtyř sloupů (At the Four Columns) [No.590/25], informs us that it was in this house that the prominent philosopher and mathematician Bernard Bolzano lived and in 1848, died.
The opposite corner house U černé Matky Boží (At the Black Madonna)[No.569/34] was built between 1911-1912 by the architect Josef Gočár in the cubist style. Cubism in architecture apart from a few exceptions, is uniquely Czech and this house is one of the best examples. The statue of the Madonna was transferred to the new building from the original house. In the opposite house U červeného orla (At the Red Eagle) [No.593/21], also called At the Stag in the Cauldron, was in the 19th century, the coffee house U Suchých, frequented by Czech patriots, among whom were Josef Kajetán Tyl and Karel Hynek Mácha. Mácha made the acquaintance here of his mistress Lori Šomkova.
We continue as far as the Menhart house (No.595/17), known as, By the Goats. The original Gothic house acquired its present appearance during the rebuilding by the baroque architect Vít Václav Kaňka. Between 1756-1776 a college of the Educational Order of Piarists was active here, led by Gelasius Dobner, a historian in the era of the Enlightenment. In the passage to štupartská Street is a wooden statue of Hercules with a lion, from the beginning of the 18th century.
Passing the Caretto-Millesi Palace (No.597/13), which retains traces of an earlier, gothic building, we reach the house U českého lva (At the Czech Lion) [No.598/11), with a winehouse in the gothic cellar. In 1781 the so called “Small Post office”, was here, colloquially known as “the rattling”. Its task was to provide an express delivery of letters in Prague within a three mile radius of the city walls. The postal messengers, dressed in canvas capes and three cornered hats, announced themselves with a noisy rattle. Owing to a lack of interest it was abolished in 1820.
On the left is the Hrzán Palace of Harasov (No.558/12), being from an artistic point of view, one of the finest buildings in the street. Its high, Baroque facade by Giovanni Battista Alliprandi, is decorated with sculpture from the workshop of Ferdinand Maximilián Brokoff.
Behind Štuparská Street is the building of the Týn Vicarage (No.601/5), with a side entrance into the Church of Our lady Before the Týn. In the adjacent house, U tří králů (At the Three Kings) [No.602/3], the Prague, Jewish writer Franz Kafka lived between 1896-1907. The house is a Gothic building remarkably well preserved - the gables and attic, made from spruce timber, also being Gothic.
At the end of the street on the left is the Sixt House (No.553/2). At the beginning of the 17th century Jan Theodor Sixt lived here, a participant in the rebellion of the Czech estates against the Hapsburgs. After the lost Battle on the White Mountain in 1620, he was sentenced to death together with 27 other noblemen however while “under the axe” in the Square he was granted a pardon. In 1626 he went into exile and the house was obtained by the scribe Fabricius, one of the victims of the second Prague defenestration, which occurred at the beginning of the rebellion of the Estates; another example of a historical paradox, in which Prague is so rich.
We enter the Old Town Square, perhaps one of the most memorable places in Prague. Like most of the Old Town, it grew up unplanned and therefore has an irregular shape. From the 13th century onwards daily, weekly and annual markets were held here. By the Town Hall, in the direction facing the Church of St. Nicholas, shopkeepers had stalls and women stall-holders sold poultry, while in front of them, more into the Square, drapers had their pitches. Opposite Melantrichova Street, bakers sold their wares, in front of the Town Hall were cooks and butchers and directly up against the Town Hall were the stalls of goldsmiths and furriers.
The wide expanse of the Square was also good for leisure purposes. For instance on 24th February 1321, a jousting tournament was held here, in which King John of Luxembourg took part. The chivalrous king however did not excel himself, because he fell off his horse and was nearly trampled to death. A favourite entertainment of the nobility here was the sport of “chasing the circle”, where a horserider at full speed, tries to slip onto his lance, a small ring hanging from a quintain.
The Square could also be the scene of torture sanctioned by law. Here for instance, in 1437, the Hussite hetman Jan Roháč of Dubé, together with his sixty companions, was hanged on a huge gallows. The gallows was built from timber, which had been allocated for the building of the roof of the Church of Our Lady Before Týn. (The Church roof was instead finished with timber that had been intended for the building of the feasting and dancing hall at the wedding of King Ladislav Pohrobek, who died prematurely.) The most famous execution was on 21 June 1621 when the 27 Czech noblemen, who participated in the uprising of the Czech Estates against the Emperor Ferdinand II. were executed here.
A pillory used to stand in the Square and after 1551, an iron cage into which were locked licentious offenders, sometimes even naked and smeared with honey, so they would be pestered by insects. These punishments however did not always produce the desired affect: when in 1794, Madame Flechová, the owner of a luxury bordello, was tied to the pillory as a “seductress of youth”, a company of dragoons passing by saluted her.
From 1650, the Marian Column, built to commemorate the ending of the Thirty Years War, stood in the centre of the Square . This singular monument of the early baroque (it was the second oldest standing column in Europe) was destroyed in 1918 by a mob, because it was regarded as a symbol of Hapsburg subjugation. The Column also acted as a simple sun dial, the so called gnomon. It stood exactly on “the Prague meridian” (140 30' East) still marked today in the pavement by a metal strip approximately on an imaginary line between Železná Street and Dlouhá Street. At midday a shadow was thrown by the Column across the strip. A model of the Column is in the Church of Our Lady, the Queen of Peace, in the Lhotka district of Prague. In 1862 the marble Krocín Fountain,an example of exquisite stonework and sculpture from the renaissance was also removed. Today in the Square, there is the art nouveau memorial to master Jan Huss by Ladislav Šaloun, built between 1903-1915.
We start our consideration of the houses surrounding the Square from today's Pařížská Avenue, which cut through the still closed-off, mediaeval Square, at the beginning of the 20th century. The Schirr House (No. 934/5) is a modern building in a neo-baroque style. The writer Franz Kafka lived here for some time in his youth. The original house belonged, in the 17th century, to a Dutch leather tanner Servác Engel, of Engelfluss, who was the first in Prague to make shoe soles from hard leather. Thanks to this innovation, he enriched himself so much that he was able to buy an aristocratic title and an estate with a castle in Mníšek pod Brdy. By Dlouhá Street is the Monastery of the Order of the Paulines (No.930/7), who settled in 1620 next to the Church of St. Salvator, in the nearby Dušní Street. The baroque facade of the Monastery culminates in the gable with the statue of the saviour, the founder of the Order of St. Francis of Paula, and other saints.
On the opposite corner our attention is captured by the Golz-Kinský Palace (No.606/12), probably the most beautiful, Rococo building in Prague, built between 1755-1765 by Anselm Lurago for Count Goltz. Later on the Palace was acquired by the Kinsky Counts. Berta Suttnerová, née Kinská, secretary to Alfred Nobel and the founder of the Peace movement was born here. In 1905 she was honoured as the first woman to be given the Nobel Peace prize.
The instructive story is told about the origins of the Palace. The town councillors, it is said, refused permission for the enlargement of the building site, into the Square itself. Count Kinský however bribed three councillors and with their agreement started building behind a high fence, so that nobody at the beginning could notice the change of plan. Once the walls had been quickly built up to the height of the first floor, it was too late to change. The town council, without further ado, hanged their corruptable members on a gallows erected directly opposite the Palace, but the facade of the building disturbs the street line in the direction of the Square to this day.
The neighbouring house U kamenného zvonu (At the Stone Bell) [No.605/13], is a monumental, mediaeval, tower palace with an exceptionally well preserved Gothic facade which was only discovered when the baroque additions were removed during reconstruction. An older, Gothic house had been rebuilt in the first quarter of the 14th century, probably for John of Luxembourg and his wife Eliška Přemislide. It is possible that the later Emperor, Charles IV, also lived here. The exceptional significance of the house is supported by the existence of two Palace chapels. In the interior some frescos from the beginning of the 14th century have survived. The house today is an exhibition space and concert hall. Next to it is the Týn School (No.604/13), with a baroque picture of the Virgin Mary on the facade and the house U bílého jednorožce (At the White Unicorn) [No.603/15], where the opera singer and friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josefína Dušková was born.
On the north side, among the houses behind Celetná Street, is the house U kamenného stolu, (At the Stone Table) [No.550/18], with preserved gothic cellars. In 1910-1911 Albert Einstein lectured here several times for the society of German writers and artists. Architecturally interesting is the house U zlatého jednorožce, (At the Golden Unicorn) [No.548/20]. It has a Romanesque nucleus from the 12th century above which, in the 13th century, was built a towered, early Gothic palace. In 1496 the house was extended in late Gothic style; from that time the entrance way has been preserved, with ribbed net vaulting by Matěj Rejsek. It leads into a narrow and deep courtyard typical of the gothic period. Between 1838-1839, the writer Karel Havlíček Borovský lived in the house and in 1848 the composer Bedřich Smetana opened a music school here.
The house U modré hvězdy (At the Blue Star) [No.479/25] was originally Romanesque, and today has an early Baroque facade. Inside is a well known winehouse U Bindrů, with a tradition reaching back as far as the 16th century. The Square ends with the house U zlatého anděla, (At the Golden Angel) [No.460/29], where King Frederick of Falc slept after the lost Battle on the White Mountain before his flight from Prague.
The most important part of the Old Town Square is the complex of buildings which form the Staroměstská Radnice, (Old Town Hall) [No1/3]. It started after the granting of privileges in 1338 by King John of Luxembourg and progressed through a complicated series of building developments. Its core is the house of Volflin of Kamen, acquired by the town authorities in 1338. The pointed, late Gothic, portal with carved flowers and crabs dates from the third quarter of the 15th century. A late gothic window next to the portal is decorated with the coats of arms of Prague, the Czech kingdom and the initials of King Vladislav Jagellon. Above the original Gothic portal we can see a Renaissance window, with the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, the Czech kingdom and the Old Town at the sides.
The Town Hall Tower, 65.5m high, was begun shortly after 1338. The chapel with the oriel window, was consecrated in 1381, regothicised at the end of the 19th century and repaired in 1948. In the mosaic pavement below the window, in the direction of Pařížská Avenue, is the site, indicated by crosses set among the paving stones, where in 1621, 27 Czech noblemen were executed.
After 1360 a second Town Hall house was added to the house of Volflin. The first floor is decorated by a sumptous renaissance window .On the facade under the windows on the second floor, are the coats of arms of the town coucillors in 1470. The neighbouring house of the Furrier Mikeš, was acquired by the town in 1458. Nowadays it has a neo-renaissance facade. The next house U kohouta (At the Cockerel), with a neo- classical exterior, has been owned by the town since 1830. On the ground floor of this and the previous house, arcaded bowers from the second half of the 14th century have been uncovered. The Town Hall was extended after 1896 by the addition of the house, U minuty (At the Minute) [No.3/2], which juts out into the Square and has Renaissance sgraffito, depicting mythological scenes.
That part of the Town Hall complex lying from the Tower in the direction of Pařížská Avenue, has been rebuilt several times and was finally destroyed in the Prague uprising of May 1945. There is at present on the site a small park, because none of the proposed designs for the completion of the building has so far been successful.
Access to the historical rooms on the second floor, is gained via the Renaissance doorway from the 16th century. The council chamber is decorated with large canvases from the second half of the 19th century, by Václav Brožík. The first represents Master Jan Huss in front of the Council of Constance and the second depicts the election of George of Poděbrady as the Czech king, which took place here at the Town Hall in 1458. The most valuable room in the Town Hall is the old, late Gothic council chamber, with a timber framed ceiling, painted in the 18th century. Above the wall pannelling, are the emblems of the Prague guilds. Among several statues, especially noteworthy is the outstanding, gothic, wood carving, Ecce homo (the suffering Christ) from around 1400.
Visitors are without doubt most interested in the Town Hall Astronomical Clock (Orloj). The clock in existence in 1410 was made by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and the astronomer Jan Šindel. Master Hanuš of Růže, known from legend as the creator of the clock, merely repaired it in 1490. The figures of the apostles above the astrolabe where positioned there only in the 17th century. Although nowadays they enjoy considerable attention, in the past, on the contrary, the educated Prague citizens were proud that here, in contrast to other clocks, there were no puppet figures providing amusement for simpletons and that the machinery illustrated only pure astronomical science. The whole clock was thoroughly renovated in the second half of the 19th century and was also then fitted with a new calendar face by Josef Mánes. Unfortunately the whole clock was completely destroyed during the May uprising in 1945. Two years later Vojtěch Sucharda carved new statues of the apostles and the sculptor even planned to add the figure of Judas, in the likeness of Alois Moravec, the Minister of Education in the Nazi Protectorate and the national quisling. This idea however was never adopted. Extensive repairs were carried out which, later on, included the valuable clockwork movement operating the complicated mechanism of the astrolabe.
The golden hand on the clock face shows both central European time (Roman numbers), and also old Czech time (gothic numbers). Our ancestors divided time into 24 hours, which were counted from sunset, therefore the Gothic number 24 which indicates the transitory time of sunset is placed on the clock face always opposite to the Roman number 24. The gilded orbs with arabic numbers represent planetary hours, which had variable length. There were 12 from sunrise to sunset and 12 from sunset to sunrise. The gilded sun copies the daily movement of the Sun across the sky - it crosses the line with the sign Aurora (dawn), then Ortus (sunrise), Occasus (sunset) and Crepusculum (nightfall). Represented also is the movement of the Sun through the signs of the Zodiac. The Moon is half dark and half light. The moon's phases are indicated depending on which it is turned to the viewer. It also travels across the clock face and shows in which sign the ecliptic rises (where it crosses the Ortus line) and where it sets (Occasus). The hand with the star shows stellar time, important for casting horoscopes. In the centre of the clock face the Earth is painted, around which the Sun is turning and which indicates the celestial ecliptic; on the Prague astronomical clock, the Ptolemaic theory is depicted with the Earth at the centre of the universe.
After viewing the Town Hall, we leave the Old Town Square and enter Malé naměstí (the Small Square), called Ryneček. On the south side is the house U zlaté lilie (At the Golden Lily) [No.458/12], with the oldest, preserved, shop front portal in Prague, from the end of the 14th century. During the reign of Vladislav Jagellon, the apothecary Tomášek, who was involved in a conspiracy against the King lived here. He procured for the conspirators a strong poison from Venice, however after their plans were betrayed he died under torture. A quite different fate befell the apothecary and botanist Angelo from Florence, who opened his pharmacy in the house U anděla (At the Angel) [No.144/1]. For his loyal service he became the court apothecary to Emperor Charles IV. On the ground floor of his house, late Gothic, net, ribbed vaulting in the shape of an 8 pointed star by Matěj Rejsek is preserved.
The Rott House (No.142/3), is a later building on the site of the house, At the Three White Roses. Below ground level, two floors are preserved of the original, Romanesque house from the second half of the 12th century. In the 15th century the house belonged to Jan Pytlík, who published here in 1488, the first, printed, Prague bible in the Czech language.
Skirting around the well with a Renaissance grill, we enter the Street U Radnice. The house U zelené žáby (At the Green Frog) [No.13/8], has on the ground floor, a wine house, which supposedly was frequented by the executioner Mydlář, the one who carried out the sentence on the 27 Czech noblemen. A commemorative plaque placed on the house U věže (At the Tower) [No.24/5], informs us that here, in 1883, the Prague Jewish writer Franz Kafka was born. However it is not the very house in which Kafka was born because that one was pulled down in 1897. In today's house a commemorative display has been set up.
In front of us, towers the not very decorative facade of the Church of St. Mikuláš (Nicholas). Originally a gothic church, next to which was founded in 1635, a Benedictine Monastery, rebuilt in the high Baroque style between 1732-1735 by Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, the same architect who built the Church of St. Nicholas in the Small Quarter. We have noted several times already that the Baroque style took great pains to create panoramic views in the streets and squares. This church is another example. Its entrance faces a narrow corner in front of the prelate's residence, and therefore that facade did not need to be elaborately decorated. Yet the side of the church was turned directly towards the Staroměstské Town Hall, looking on to a small square, originally the Poultry Market, separated from the Old Town Square by the now demolished Krenn house and the north wing of the Town Hall. Therefore the side facade of the church is richly decorated and creates the impression that the main entrance would be here. The ornamentation of the facade was intended to be seen at close quarters, which is apparent from the tilt of the statues on the facade. Today's distant view, from the Old Town Square, was opened up only after the removal of the intervening buildings. The interior is decorated with rich stucco by Bernard Spinetti and a baroque fresco by Kosma Damián Assam, with scenes from the lives of St. Nicholas and St. Benedict.
The church was deconsecrated in 1787 and was used afterwards for various purposes, including rope walking exhibitions which took place in its cupola. In 1791, the French aeronaut and conqueror of the English Channel, Jean-Pierre Blanchard exhibited here his aeronautical technology. In 1871 it was given to the Russian Orthodox Church to use (from which period comes the monumental chandelier in the shape of a Czar's crown) and from 1920 it has served the Czechoslovak Hussite church. After visiting this church we end our walk through the Old Town Square.
External Links
- Old Town Square photos on ArchFoto.cz
- Old Town Hall photos on ArchFoto.cz