Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of the brightly coloured houses look solidly eighteenth century, but their Baroque facades
hide considerably older buildings. From the eleventh century onwards, this was the city's
main marketplace, known simply as Velké náměstí (Great Square), to which all roads in
Bohemia led, and where merchants from all over Europe gathered. When the five towns
that made up Prague were united in 1784, it was the
town hall
here that was made the
seat of the new city council, and for the next two hundred years this grand piazza (along
with Wenceslas Square) witnessed the country's most violent demonstrations and battles.
Nowadays, its cobbles swarm with tourists all year round: in summer cafés spread out their
tables, in winter there's a Christmas market, and every day people pour in to watch the town
hall's astronomical clock chime, to sit on the benches in front of the
HusMonument
, and to
have a drink in this historic showpiece.
HEADS ROLL IN THE OLD TOWN
Set into the paving on the western side of the Old Town Hall (Staroměstská radnice),
27
white crosses
commemorate one of the bloodiest days ever seen on the Old Town Square.
On June 21, 1621, 27 Protestant leaders, condemned to death on the orders of Emperor
Ferdinand II following the Battle of Bílá hora, were publicly executed here by the Prague
executionerJanMlydář.Twenty-fourenjoyedthenobleman'sprivilegeandhadtheirheads
lopped off; the three remaining commoners were hung, drawn and quartered. Mlydář also
chopped off the right hand of three of the nobles, and hacked off the tongue of the rector
of Prague University, Johannes Jessenius. The severed heads were then displayed on the
Charles Bridge for all to see.
Staroměstská radnice (Old Town Hall)
Staroměstské náměstí 1 •
Interiors
Mon 11am-6pm, Tues-Sun 9am-6pm • 40Kč
Tower
Mon 11am-10pm,
Tues-Sun 9am-10pm • 100Kč • 236 002 629,
staromestskaradnicepraha.cz
• Metro Staroměstská
It wasn't until the reign of King John of Luxembourg (1310-46) that Staré Město was al-
lowed to build its own town hall, now known as the
Staroměstská radnice
. Short of funds,
the citizens decided against a new structure, buying a corner house on the square instead and
simply adding an extra floor; later on, they added the east wing, with its graceful Gothic ori-
el and obligatory wedge-tower. Gradually, over the centuries, the neighbouring merchants'
houses to the west were incorporated into the building, so that now it stretches all the way
across to the richly sgraffitoed
Dům U minuty
, which juts out into the square.
On May 8, 1945, on the final day of the Prague Uprising, the Nazis still held on to
Staroměstské náměstí, and in a last desperate act set fire to the town hall's neo-Gothic
east
wing
, which stretched almost to the church of sv Mikuláš. The tower and oriel chapel were
rebuilt immediately, but only a crumbling fragment remains of the east wing; the rest of it is
marked by the stretch of grass to the north. Embedded in the wall of the tower is a plaque
