Convent of Saint Agnes
The earliest gothic building in Prague, the Convent of Saint Agnes was constructed in 1231 on a riverside plot later known as ‘Na Františku’ (St Francis’s). The site had been donated by King Wenceslas I...
Tagged: windows
Novoměstská radnice: New Town Hall
The founding of the so-called ‘New Town’ in 1348 made Prague the third largest city by area in the whole of Europe after Rome and Constantinople. According to the census of thirty years later, the...
Karlova Koruna, Chlumec nad Cidlinou
The village of Chlumec, fifty miles east of Prague, came into the possession of the noble family of Kinský at the start of the seventeenth century. In 1721, Count František Ferdinand Kinský invited the baroque...
Prague Castle: Ludvík Wing and ‘Bull’ Staircase
Halfway along the impressive southern rampart of Prague Castle stands the Ludvík wing, a five-storey bastion built between 1503 and 1509 and named after Ludvík Jagellonský, ruler of Bohemia from 1516 to 1526. Its architect,...
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...
Church of Saint Norbert, Střešovice
Built between 1890 and 1891 on high ground of Střešovice to the west of Prague, this romanesque-style church provided a much-needed place of worship for a rapidly expanding population. The church’s dedication to Saint Norbert...
Okoř Castle
The ruins of this mid-fourteenth-century castle lie about seven miles northwest of Prague. The name Okoř is thought to be related to the word ‘kořen’, or ‘root’, and is the subject of a colourful tale...
Václavské náměstí 846/1: Koruna building
This landmark tower at the lower end of Wenceslas Square was designed by the architects Antonín Pfeiffer and Matěj Blecha and constructed between 1912 and 1914 on the site of the former Vienna Cafe. Typically...
Petrohradská 141/52: Vila Jitřenka
This villa by the banks of the Botič – currently home to the Prague Gentlemen’s Fly Fishing Club – dates from 1738, and is therefore only slightly younger than the nearby Church of St Nicholas,...
Štefánikova 68/12: Portheimka
In 1722, the celebrated Prague architect Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer purchased a plot of land formerly held by the Jesuits, where his patron Count Jan Václav Michna already owned a substantial garden. Over the course of...
