Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dům U bílého jednorožce (House at the White Unicorn)
Staroměstské náměstí 20 • Metro Staroměstská
Rather than a white unicorn, the sixteenth-century house sign on the
Dům U bílého jed-
norožce
actually depicts a one-horned ram. Bedřich Smetana opened a music academy here
in 1848 and this was also the site of Prague's most famous
salon
, run by Berta Fanta. Prague
German writers Franz Kafka, Max Brod and Franz Werfel attended, as did
Albert Einstein
,
who worked in Prague for a number of years before World War I.
Týn church
Staroměstské náměstí 604 • Mon-Sat 10am-1pm & 3-5pm, Sun 10.30am-noon • Donation requested • 222
318 186,
tynska.farnost.cz
• Metro Staroměstská
Staré Město's most impressive Gothic structure, the mighty
Týnchurch
(Chrám Matky boží
před Týnem), is far more imposing than the main square's church of sv Mikuláš. Its two ir-
regulartowers,bristlingwithbaubles,spiresandpinnacles,riselikegiantantennaeabovethe
arcaded houses that otherwise obscure its facade, and are spectacularly lit up at night. Like
the nearby Hus Monument, the Týn church, begun in the fourteenth century under Charles
IV, is a source of Czech national pride. In an act of defiance, George of Poděbrady, the last
Czech and the only Hussite king of Bohemia, adorned the high stone gable with a statue of
himself and a giant gilded
kalich
(chalice), the mascot of all Hussite sects. The church re-
mained a hotbed of Hussitism until the Protestants' crushing defeat at the Battle of Bílá hora,
after which the chalice was melted down to provide the newly ensconced statue of the Virgin
Mary with a golden halo, sceptre and crown.
DespitebeingoneofthemainlandmarksofStaréMěsto,it'swell-nighimpossibletoappre-
ciate the church from anything but a considerable distance, since it's boxed in by the houses
around it, some of which are actually built right against the walls. To reach the
entrance
,
take the third arch on the left, which passes under the Venetian gables of the former Týn
School. The church's high-vaulted, narrow nave is bright white, punctuated at ground level
by black and gold Baroque altarpieces. One or two original Gothic furnishings survive, not-
ably the fifteenth-century baldachin, housing a winged altar in the north aisle, and, opposite,
thepulpit,whosepanelsareenhancedbysomesensitivenineteenth-centuryicons.Behindthe
pulpit, you'll find a superb, winged altar depicting John the Baptist, dating from 1520, and
executed by the artist known as Master I.P. To view the north portal and canopy, which bears
the hallmark of Peter Parler's workshop, you must go back outside and head down Týnská.
The pillar on the right of the chancel steps contains the red marble
tomb of Tycho Brahe
,
the famous Danish astronomer who arrived in Prague wearing a silver and gold false nose,
having lost his own in a duel over a woman in Rostock. Court astronomer to Rudolf II for
just two years, Brahe laid much of the groundwork for Johannes Kepler's later discoveries
