Husova 231/12: U tří praporečníků (The Three Standard-Bearers)

The three figures adorning this building in Prague’s Old Town first appeared in the 1580s, at which time the house was known as The Three Angels.

In 1877 a radical neo-Renaissance reconstruction took place: a third floor was added and the facade of the house was modified. The cavaliers we see today are 19th-century reproductions, and from this time also dates a curious story probably invented to go with the paintings.

The legend goes that in the 1730s three soldiers billetted here agreed that should any of them meet their death in battle, they would strive in some way to let the others know. While two came back unharmed, the ghost of the third returned to warn his two companions of their own impending deaths. Terrified, they abandoned their regiments and sought hopeful refuge in the Franciscan monastery of Our Lady of the Snows, where each died within the year.

The sharp-eyed will note that the red plaque carries yet another example of an incorrect cadastral number – the house is actually no. 231.