Prague Astronomical Clock (Orloj)
The exact authorship of the mediaeval clock (‘orloj’) in Prague’s Old Town Square is confused, but it seems to have been the result of a collaboration between Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel, an astronomer...
Tagged: czech history
Prokopova 216/4: Bethlehem Chapel in Žižkov
Six hundred years ago, in 1414, the practice of administering communion ‘in both kinds’ (i.e. with consecrated bread and wine for all participants, not just the clergy) was restored in Prague. The execution of the...
Church of the Name of the Virgin, Křtiny
Legend has it that the ninth-century saints Cyril and Methodius baptized their first Moravian disciples in this wooded valley a few miles northeast of Brno (about 150 miles southeast of Prague). The village of Křtiny...
Na Poříčí 1046/24: Bank of the Legions
The Bank of the Legions (Legionářská banka, or Legiobanka) was founded in 1919 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk as a depository for the savings of Czechoslovak soldiers returning from the First World War. As...
Vlašská 347/19: Lobkowicz Palace
Originally a single-storey construction, this magnificent three-winged palace was built between 1703 and 1706 by the architect Giovanni Battista Aliprandi for Count Karel Přehořovský of Kvasejovice, Master of the Royal Mint. In 1753, it was...
Václavské náměstí: Statue of Saint Wenceslas
Prince Václav I – known to the English-speaking world as ‘Good King Wenceslas’ – was one of Bohemia’s first Christian rulers. On 28 September in the year 929 (some say 935) he was murdered by...
Praha hlavní nádraží: Sir Nicholas Winton
Nicholas Winton’s humanitarian work in saving hundreds of Jewish children from the grim certainty of the Holocaust came to light only in 1988. But in the years since, thanks to the efforts of the Slovak...
Wilsonova 101/4: State Opera
In the early nineteenth century, Prague was home to a substantial number of German speakers, especially among the nobility and professional classes. In the light of the Czech National Revival, however, their linguistic and cultural...
Prague Metro
A Prague underground system had been proposed as early as 1898 by the engineer Ladislav Rott, but it was only in 1926 that the first proper plan for a rapid transport system was drawn up...
Valdštejn Palace (Senate)
This monumental early baroque palace in the Malá Strana district was constructed between the years 1623 and 1630 for Count Albrecht von Wallenstein (Czech ‘Valdštejn), one of the most significant and colourful figures of the...
