Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Next to the old Parliament building, the grandiose
Státní opera
, built by the Viennese duo
Helmer and Fellner, looks stunted and deeply affronted by the traffic that now tears past
its front entrance. It was opened in 1888 as the Neues Deutsches Theater, shortly after the
Czechs had built their own national theatre on the waterfront. Always second fiddle to the
Stavovské divadlo, though equally ornate inside, it was one of the last great building projects
ofPrague'sonceall-powerfulGerman-speakingminority.Thevelvet-and-goldinteriorisstill
as fresh as it was when the Bohemian-born composer Gustav Mahler brought the traffic to a
standstill conducting the premiere of his
Seventh Symphony
.
Praha hlavní nádraží (Prague Main Station)
Wilsonova 8 •
cd.cz
• Metro Hlavní nádraží
Designed by Czech architect Josef Fanta and officially opened in 1909 as the Franz-Josefs
Bahnhof, Prague's main train station,
Praha hlavní nádraží
, was one of the final architec-
tural glories of the dying Empire. Arriving by metro, or buying tickets in the over-polished
subterranean modern section, it's easy to miss the station's surviving Art Nouveau parts. The
original entrance on Wilsonova still exudes imperial confidence, with its wrought-iron can-
opy and naked figurines clinging to the sides of the towers; on the other side of the road,
two great glass protrusions signal the new entrance that opens out into the green space of the
Vrchlického sady, a grimy gathering point for Prague's numerous down-and-outs. The Art
Nouveausections,includingtheremarkable
Fantova kavárna
,arecurrentlybeingsensitively
renovated, the seedy 1977 “new” terminal having been half-heartedly revamped as a crass
and rather cramped shopping centre a decade ago.
Na příkopě and around
If you head northeastwards from Můstek at the end of Václavské náměstí, you can join those
ambling down
Na příkopě
(literally “on the ditch”), a street that traces the course of the old
Staré Město ditch, which was finally filled in in 1760. Na příkopě has been an architectural
showcase for more than a century, and formed the chief venue for the weekend
passeggiata
at the end of the nineteenth century.
The south side of Na příkopě features grandiose buildings such as the former
Haasdepart-
ment store
at no. 4, built in 1869-71 by Theophil Hansen, the Danish architect responsible
for much of the redevelopment of the Ringstrasse in Vienna. Many of the finest turn-of-the-
twentieth-century buildings, including the
Café Corso
and the
Café Français
- once the fa-
vourite haunts of Prague's German-Jewish literary set - were torn down and replaced dur-
ing the enthusiastic construction boom of the interwar republic. At no. 7, the Art Nouveau
U
Dörflerů
, from 1905, with its gilded floral curlicues, is one of the few survivors along this
stretch. On the north side of the street there are a couple of interesting buildings at
nos 18
and20
.ThelatterisnowpartoftheŽivnostenkabanka,designedbyOsvaldPolívkaoverthe
