Václavské náměstí 775/8: Adam Pharmacy

The Adam pharmacy at the lower end of Wenceslas Square was built between 1911 and 1913 by the firm of Matěj Blecha according to a design by Emil Králíček. The same team was also responsible for the nearby Šupich building, and the Diamant (Diamond) House at Spálená 4.

The atlantes supporting the bay window are representations of the science of pharmacy. Usually depicted only as the goddess Hygeia with her bowl and serpent, here they are presented as a male and female couple (with a possible nod to the name Adam), by sculptor Antonín Waigant. His trademark primitivist figures and meandering ribboning can also be found in his other Prague work, for example at Chopinova 8. 

In a stroke of appalling insensitivity, the facade of the Adamova Lékárna is now half-obscured by a glass-and-steel elevator shaft installed to serve the nearby Můstek metro station.