Category: baroque

Prague Castle: Matthias Gate

Prague Castle: Matthias Gate

‘D[ominus] Matthias El[ectus] Rom[anus] Imp[erator] S[emper] Aug[ustus] Hung[ariae] Boh[emiae] Rex etc. F[ieri] F[ecit] An[n]o MDCXIV’ ‘Master Matthias, elected Roman Emperor, forever August, King of Hungary, Bohemia etc., ordered this to be built in the year...

Martinská 8: Church of Saint Martin-in-the-Wall

Martinská 8: Church of Saint Martin-in-the-Wall

Saint Martin’s is one of the oldest churches in Prague. An original romanesque temple of 1178 (parts of which survive) was incorporated into the defensive wall of the Old Town some time in the 13th...

Hradčanské náměstí 56/16: Archbishop's Palace

Hradčanské náměstí 56/16: Archbishop’s Palace

Commissioned by Jan Bedřich von Waldstein, and built between 1675 and 1679 by Francesco Lurago on the site of the existing Bishops’ Palace, the imposing baroque structure with its prominent central bay and impressive pavilion...

Malostranské náměstí: Cathedral of Saint Nicholas

Malostranské náměstí: Cathedral of Saint Nicholas

The monumental cathedral of Saint Nicholas was begun in the late 1670s as the centrepiece of the recatholicization of Bohemia following the Thirty Years’ War. In 1702 the great Prague architect Kryštof Dientzenhofer took over...

Týnská ulička 611/10

Týnská ulička 611/10

A house has stood on this spot in Týn Alley since at least the 13th century, when it was the home of doctor Jakub Lavín of Ottenfeld. From 1405 until the 1600s the building was...

Vršovické náměstí 84/6: Church of Saint Nicholas

Vršovické náměstí 84/6: Church of Saint Nicholas

A romanesque chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene is recorded as having stood on this site in the then village of Vršovice in the year 1028. By 1374 the chapel had been been widened, renovated in...

Haštalské náměstí 1041/6: Ossuary of the Holy Trinity

Haštalské náměstí 1041/6: Ossuary of the Holy Trinity

The Square of St Castulus (sv. Haštal), a quiet backwater of Prague’s Old Town, contains several notable buildings, including a Baroque-period ossuary (bone-house) dedicated to the Holy Trinity, on whose south-facing wall this fresco appears....

Masná 705/1

Masná 705/1

This art nouveau apartment stands on the site of an earlier building, all of which now survives is the original baroque house sign. The symbol of the pike alludes to the name of the brewery...

Tomášská 26/4: The Golden Stag

Tomášská 26/4: The Golden Stag

The Golden Stag, on St Thomas’s Street, was built for the moneylender Jan Kašpar Friedrich in 1726. The depiction of Saint Hubert – who experienced a divine revelation when Christ appeared to him between the...

Cihelná 102/2

Cihelná 102/2

A fine example of an 18th century doorway in the Lesser Quarter, Malá Strana. Cihelná (Brickyard Street) takes its name from the building adjacent to number 102. Formerly a tannery and knacker’s yard, it was...