This page is devoted to some of the interesting buildings we passed by during our visit in Prague. For the most part, we didn’t actually enter any of them, and there were many we couldn’t identify by any name besides their approximate address. I’ve strictly applied two criteria for including them on this page: first, they had to look cool, and second, we have to have gotten decent photos of them. During World War II, Prague was much less heavily bombed than many other European capitals, so it has a greater population of surviving pre-war buildings than most. In particular, there is a heavy representation of the art nouveau style, popular between about 1890 and 1910. Art nouveau uses a lot of decoration, much of it taken from forms found in nature. Think in terms of Tiffany lamps and stained glass, or of the work of Czech artist Alphons Mucha. We photographed the buildings on this page at various times during our stay in Prague. Most are art nouveau, but other styles are represented as well.

We’ll start with a building called the Rudolfinum, which was opened in 1885 and is not an art nouveau building. Instead, it’s considered to have been done in the neo-renaissance style. The Rudolfinum is primarily a music venue, and is located on the east bank of the Vltava River at the Manes Bridge, the first bridge north of the Charles Bridge. It’s the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed in the hall’s first concert in January of 1896, conducted by Antonín Dvořák. The opening was presided over by Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, from whom the hall got its name. Rudolf was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph I and the Empress Elisabeth (also known as Sisi). He didn’t live to become emperor, though, as he died in a suicide pact with his mistress in 1889. We passed by his concert hall on the way back to our hotel from the Little Quarter (we took the scenic route).

One area we visited a couple of times which has some interesting buildings is called Náměstí Republiky, or Republic Square, located to the east of the Old Town. There is a tower on this square known as the Powder Tower, which was one of the original 13 city gates, intended as a welcoming gate with construction starting in 1475. Its position was adjacent to a palace called the Royal Court, which at the time was the principal residence of Bohemian royalty. Vladislav II, the king at the time, soon found the location to be vulnerable during riots in 1483, so he relocated to Prague Castle, leaving the tower incomplete. The unfinished tower was used to store gunpowder in the 17th Century (the source of its present name), and suffered considerable damage during a Prussian siege in 1757. It was finally finished in neo-Gothic style (using the Charles Bridge tower as a model) and given its present appearance in the 19th Century. The tower was the first structure we noticed on arriving at the square, though we’d passed some interesting buildings on the way there.


For centuries the Powder Tower was the starting point for something called the Royal Route, a route traversed by soon-to-be-crowned kings as part of coronation festivities. The route began at the Powder Tower and passed through the Old Town. From there the route crossed the river using the Charles Bridge, and then passed through the Little Quarter, finally climbing the hill up to the St. Vitus Cathedral, where actual coronation ceremonies took place.

As for the Royal Court complex, after Vladislav II moved out (the kings only used the residence for about 100 years), it was occupied for about a century by the Lobkovic family, after which it was taken over by the church and used as a seminary. The seminary burned down in 1689 but was immediately rebuilt, with a Baroque church being added. In 1773 the seminary moved out and in the 19th Century the church was dissolved, with a military cadet school replacing it. In 1902-03 all of the buildings were demolished, and in 1905 construction began on a building called the Municipal House, which was completed in 1912. The Municipal House still occupies the space, and is used for cultural events and sometimes for governmental purposes. The independence of the new country of Czechoslovakia was declared at the Municipal House in 1918. From the time of its construction, you might be thinking the Municipal House must be heavy on the art nouveau, and you would be right – it’s one of the most famous art nouveau buildings in the city. All of the top Czech painters and sculptors of the early 20th Century participated in the building’s decoration.

Also located on Republic Square is the Hotel Paris, built in 1904. Its style is more neo-gothic, but it has unmistakable art nouveau elements.

Another area of interesting buildings is the river bank of the New Town, to the south of the Old Town. After returning from our exploration of the Old Town and the Charles Bridge, I had the bright idea of heading southward. Nella had what she thought was a better idea, which included some shopping and maybe a nap, so we headed off in two different directions. I didn’t have a very clear idea of what I was looking for, as there aren’t that many well-known landmarks along the New Town’s shoreline. But there is one – a building called the Dancing House. I turned on the Maps app on my smartphone (I’d pre-loaded the Prague map before the trip, to avoid foreign 4G charges) and headed in what seemed to be the right direction. My plan was to find the Dancing House and then work my way up the river, to see what I could find. But almost immediately, a block from the hotel, I found the Palác Adria. This building is not art nouveau, having been built in 1924, when this would have been old-fashioned. Instead, it was built in the Rondo Cubist style, also known as Czech Art Deco. It was built by an Italian insurance company, and has housed a variety of businesses since its completion.

Continuing south, I followed the directions of my phone GPS to get to the Dancing House. The phone sent me through a maze of side streets and eventually spat me out into a square called Jiráskovo Náměstí (after a writer named Alois Jirásek, who died in 1930), on the Vltava River’s east bank. This square features the east end of a bridge across the river that is also named after Jirásek (Jiráskův Most), as well as several buildings, one of which is the Dancing House.

The Dancing House (Tančící dům) is emphatically not art nouveau, having been completed in 1996. The lot occupied by the Dancing House was occupied by a more conventional building until 1945, when the building was mistakenly bombed by a wayward American bomber that thought it was in Dresden, Germany. The building remained a ruin until 1960, when it was cleared off to create a vacant lot. As it turned out, the house next door was partly owned by the family of future President Václav Havel, who lived there for most of his life. In the 1980’s, an architect named Vlado Milunić came up with some ideas for the vacant lot which he discussed with Havel, who at the time only had moral support to offer. But after becoming President, Havel's influence obviously increased, and he was able to find a sponsor for the building, a Dutch insurance company called Nationale-Nederlanden, under the condition that Milunić team with an architect with a world-class reputation. A search ensued, and soon the services of no less than Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry were secured. Milunić had the idea of a two-part building which would symbolize the transition of Czechoslovakia from a communist regime to a parliamentary democracy, with the communist part being structured concrete and the democracy part being more modern and whimsical. Gehry brought American popular culture with him, and envisioned the two parts of the building more as ballroom dancers, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to be precise. The design was finished in 1992 and construction began in 1994, with completion in 1996. The building won a number of architectural awards, but the locals had some misgivings because of its contrast with the generally art nouveau neighborhood. But misgivings or not, the building is famous, and contains an art gallery, a hotel, a restaurant and a bar.

I didn’t go into the Dancing House, but there are supposed to be great views of the river and the city from its bar, which is on the top floor. But I did walk out onto the Jirásek Bridge and found some pretty nice views out over the water from bridge level as well.

I returned to Jiráskovo Náměstí and followed the riverbank northward, along a street called Masarykovo Nábřeží (Masaryk Embankment). This is probably prime real estate, because of the river view, and there were several art nouveau buildings located here. All of them had interesting detail work.




Unfortunately, the river view from most of these buildings was probably limited to the upper floors, because at ground level there was an island in the way. This island, called Slovansky Island, was formed in the 18th Century, and in 1837 a palace was built on the island. This palace, called Žofín Palace, wasn’t used by royalty, but instead was a concert and social venue. The palace was named after royalty, though – Princess Sophie (Žofie in Czech), who was the mother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. In 1884 the city bought the palace and rebuilt it in the form it has now. A number of famous composers have performed in the palace, including Dvořák (who held his first concert here in 1878), Berlioz, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Wagner.

You may or may not remember Slovansky Island as an island a short distance from the Legií Bridge (which we used to cross the river on our way to see the Infant of Prague). Working my way up Masarykovo Nábřeží, I was now approaching the Legií Bridge, and again there were nice views of the National Theatre on the right and the far side of the river on the left.



From the Legií Bridge I returned to the hotel, but then took some time to explore Wenceslas Square. You may recall that Wenceslas Square isn’t so much a square as a long, wide, partially pedestrianized boulevard, lined on both sides with shops, restaurants and interesting buildings. Our hotel was very close to the north end of the square, so we wandered into it on more than one occasion. Here are some of the buildings on the east side of the square:




Part way up the square there is a cross street called Jindřišská which extends to the east, and down this street is another one of Prague’s gothic towers, this one called Henry’s Tower. It was first built in 1476, but has since been renovated and rebuilt, acquiring its present appearance in the 1870s. At 216 feet, it’s the tallest free-standing bell tower in Prague.

On reaching the top of Wenceslas Square (its south end), we found an equestrian statue of St. Wenceslas, surrounded by smaller statues which were on foot. There was also a large domed building which turned out to be the National Museum. It was being heavily renovated at the time, and was largely hidden by scaffolding. Fortunately we took some pictures on an earlier trip to Prague. We didn’t get a chance to visit this museum. Maybe next time.



We worked our way back to the north end of the square, this time looking at the buildings on the west side.



We rested for a brief time after this expedition, but soon had to go back out for dinner. After dinner we returned to the hotel, doing some window shopping along the way.


We didn’t stay up too late, as we had plans for the next day, which would include quite a bit of art. We would be starting with Prague’s Museum of Medieval Art.