Polská 1352/32
The complex patterns on the facade of this 1905 house by Jan Majer and Jan Bláha are suggestive of natural designs such as those of the spider’s web, one reason for including the creature itself....
Tagged: allegorical
Masarykovo nábřeží 248/16, Hlahol building
This art nouveau house on the right bank of the Vltava was built between 1903 and 1905 for the Prague choral society ‘Hlahol’ – whose name means something like ‘clamour’ or ‘peal’. The interior is...
Úvoz 161/22: U zrcadla
Madonna and Child with the attributes of Justice: stucco decoration on the facade of the house ‘U zrcadla’ (The Mirror), dating from 1729. Enthroned beneath a gilded baldachin, the Queen of Heaven cradles the Christ...
28. října 377/13
A highly ornamented doorway on one of Prague’s busiest shopping streets at the west end of Wenceslas Square. The name of the street (’28 October’), commemorates the founding of the newly independent state of Czechoslovakia...
Karlova 178/22
This outstanding art nouveau facade designed by the architect Osvald Polívka was restored in 2005, exactly a hundred years after its completion. The sculpture of a girl with a harp and doves – possibly a...
Lesnická 1155/8
This flying art nouveau figure from 1907 looks like an allegorical representation of vanity: she is holding a mirror after all, and her floating cloak seems to be impossibly thin and insubstantial. But the clue...
Staroměstské náměstí 3/2: U Minuty
Dům U minuty (‘The Minute’, also known as ‘The White Lion’) is a 15th-century house in the corner of the Old Town Square. The delicate sgraffito-work was added in 1610, but was later plastered over...
Malé náměstí 142/3: U Rotta
The foundations and surviving romanesque cellars of this substantial property date from the second half of the 12th century. Five hundred years later, the house — by then known as ‘The Three White Roses’ —...
Václavské náměstí 832/19
Currently the home of the H&M fashion store in Wenceslas Square, this grand neo-baroque building by Friedrich Ohmann and Osvald Polívka was at one time the headquarters of the Trieste-based insurers Assicurazioni Generali. Between 1...
