The Old Town Hall (Staroměstská radnice), the main feature of Old Town Square, is one of the most important, popular and frequently visited buildings in Prague. It was founded in 1338 as a privilege by King Jan of Luxembourg. What is quite unusual is that it was not built "on a green-field site", but by joining and rebuilding original burgher houses. The first two houses, of Wolflin of Kámen and shopkeeper Kříž, were in 1458 joined to house of furrier Mikš and, much later in the 19th century, Rooster and Minute Houses.
The councillors had a 69.5m high town hall tower, completed in 1364, added to Wolflin's house. A beautiful Gothic chapel, with an ariel jutting out into the square, was established on the first floar. The whole block was opulently rebuilt in late Gothic style; Wolflin's house next to the tower was given a spectacular ornamental portal and a new window, in the style characteristic of the impartant builder and stonemason Matěj Rejsek. Kříž's house was expensively rebuilt in Renaissance style, the large rectangular window with the Old Town emblem coming from that period. Minute House (photo below left) stands out because of the beautiful Renaissanee graffito on its facade as well as the stone sculpture of a lion on the corner. At the southern and northern ends of the Town Hall complex two Neo-Gothic wings were built between 1838-48. During the May Rebellion of 1945 they were set ablaze by gunfire from Cerman tanks. Part of the buildings, together with the valuable decoration and arehival records, either burnt ar were damaged in the fire. In the post-war years the historie buildings were reconstructed, the arehitecturally not verv interesting Neo-Cothie wings were pulled down to be replaced by lawns.
The most popular part of the Old Town Hall, and its pride, is the astronomical clock in the lower section of the tower. Unique in Europe, it was created around 1410, at the end of the 15th century it was improved. Each hour two windows open in the upper part of the astronomical c1ock, and the figures of the 12 apostles parade in them, the stone statue of Death pulls a rope and the production ends with the crowing of a rooster. The middle section of the clock consists of an astronomical sphere and a dial, which, representing the movements of the Sun and the Moon, is based on the mistaken medieval concept that the Earth was the centre of the universe. The dial rneasures three kinds of time, Old Czech, contemporary and Babylonian. The lower part of the astronomical clock is the most recent. It consists of a calendarium and symbols of each month and scenes from the life of rural people, set in actual Czech landscapes, painted by painter Josef Mánes in 1866.
THE STONE INHABITANTS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK
The I ittle statues that perform al regular show are a remarkable feature of the astronomical c1ock. The main focus of the spectators' attention is Death, represented by a skeleton situated at the edge of the horolog. He symbol izes the transience and impermanence of life, which is emphasized
by the hourglass he turns in
his hand. He is paired with the Turk who shakes his head and symbolizes cruelty and treachery. The pair on the other side consists of a Vain Person, looking in the mirror, and a Miser, ba sed on the original concept of a medieval usurer. To the sides of the calendarium we can see three figures of burghers and an angel. They do not lack symbolic meaning either, representing a fair rule over the city. The figures of the apostles are fairly recent,
being created in 1948 by
sculptor Vojtěch Sucharda as a replacement for the old ones, destroyed in the Town Hall
fire of 1945 .
Luxembourg. What is quite unusual is that it was not built "on a green-field site", but by joining and rebuilding original burgher houses. The first two houses, of Wolflin of Kámen and shopkeeper Kříž, were in 1458 joined to house of furrier Mikš and, much later in the 19th century, Rooster and Minute Houses.
The councillors had a 69.5m high town hall tower, completed in 1364, added to Wolflin's house. A beautiful Gothic chapel, with an ariel jutting out into the square, was established on the first floar. The whole block was opulently rebuilt in late Gothic style; Wolflin's house next to the tower was given a spectacular ornamental portal and a new window, in the style characteristic of the impartant builder and stonemason Matěj Rejsek. Kříž's house was expensively rebuilt in Renaissance style, the large rectangular window with the Old Town emblem coming from that period. Minute House (photo below left) stands out because of the beautiful
Renaissanee graffito on its facade as well as the stone sculpture of a lion on the corner. At the southern and northern ends of the Town Hall complex two Neo-Gothic wings were built between 1838-48. During the May Rebellion of 1945 they were set ablaze by gunfire from Cerman tanks. Part of the buildings, together with the valuable decoration and arehival records, either burnt ar were damaged in the fire. In the post-war years the historie buildings were reconstructed, the arehitecturally not verv interesting Neo-Cothie wings were pulled down to be replaced by lawns.