Prague Castle: Basilica of Saint George
A stone’s throw from the east end of the Cathedral of Saint Vitus stands the smaller but no less significant Basilica of Saint George (Bazilika svatého Jiří). Founded in 920 by Duke Vratislav I, the...
Tagged: facades
Na Švihance 1588/12 and 1569/14
These fine art nouveau apartments on the border of the Vinohrady and Žižkov districts date from 1910; they were built by Antonín Polívka to a design by the architect Josef Pospíšil. Seven years earlier, Pospíšil...
Castle of Orlík nad Vltavou
Orlík takes its name from ‘orel’, the Czech word for an eagle; and indeed for many centuries this rocky outcrop rising 200 feet above the river Vltava must have made a dramatic eyrie for the...
Chopinova 1564/8
The street in Prague’s Vinohrady district named after the composer Frédéric Chopin presents, as they say, a ‘smorgasbord’ of historical styles: one end is all gothic revival, turrets and bay windows, while the other exhibits...
Tolstého 522/11 and 523/13
The ornate Parisian-style apartment blocks of Kodaňská Street and its immediate neighbourhood are some of the most impressive domestic houses in Prague. But even those not facing directly onto that grand boulevard still have a...
Mariánská Týnice, Church of the Annunciation
Originally a shrine to the Virgin built by the Cistercian order from nearby Plasy, the Church of the Annunciation at Mariánská Týnice rises impressively from the open countryside of Western Bohemia, just north of Plzeň. The...
Na Petynce 395/41
Caught between two highways that sweep westwards to Prague airport, the suburbs of Střešovice and Břevnov retain a curiously quiet, semi-rural atmosphere. On their slopes can still be found the traces of numerous baroque farmsteads...
Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Hradec Králové
In the late 1890s. the young artists of the Viennese secession sent shockwaves through Europe with their radical new approach to art and architecture. While not completely throwing out the neoclassical rulebook, their boldly geometric...
Palace of Industry and Trade, Brno
In 1928, the city of Brno hosted the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia. For the main pavilion, the design of Josef Kalous was selected: a V-shaped cathedral of reinforced concrete, its two naves terminating...
Blanická 589/5
The classical-style frieze above the entrance to this residential building in Prague’s Vinohrady district presents an idealized portrait of domestic life in communist Czechoslovakia. Typically for a work of socialist realism — the only approved...
