Ten centuries of European architecture & heritage
In September 1424, the radical Hussite warrior Jan Žižka (who four years earlier had won a significant victory against the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund at Vitkov Hill) signed a treaty of reconciliation with the moderate...
Originally the headquarters of the First Czech General Reinsurance Bank, this handsome art nouveau building close to the National Theatre was constructed in 1904-5 to a plan by the architect Jiří Stibral. Additional features of...
A mere thirty years after the arrival of the first railways in Prague, the urgent need for expansion resulted in the demolition of the original neo-renaissance Franz Josef station. Its replacement – built between 1901...
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Prague was struck by devastating plagues, first in 1680 and again in 1787. The area of Olšany, then outside the city walls, was chosen to accommodate the dead. The...
František Palacký (pronounced Palat-ski), is one of three men honoured with the title ‘Father of the Nation’, the other two being the 14th-century emperor Charles IV and the first President of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk....
‘Here, in the salon of Mrs Berta Fanta, Albert Einstein, Professor at Prague University in 1911 to 1912, founder of the Theory of Relativity, Nobel prize winner, played the violin and met his friends, famous...
The Klementinum has always been at the academic heart of Prague. In 1556, when twelve missionaries arrived in the city to found a Jesuit college, they chose as their new home the complex of buildings...
The corner of Na Zderaze and Resslova streets has always been a holy place. Tradition has it that Methodius himself (who with his brother Cyril set out to popularize Christianity in the Slavic lands) dedicated...
‘Mír a štěstí buď pod touto střechou’: ‘May peace and happiness reign under this roof’ AD 1897. The House of the Bohemian Eagle (U České orlice) stands in the historic fruitmarket, near to the House...
‘Dante Deo nihil nocet invidia, et eo non dante, nihil iuvat labor’ (‘With God’s grace, envy brings no pain; without His grace, all toil’s in vain’); ‘An Gottes Segen ist alles gelegen’ (‘Upon God’s blessing...
