Page 75 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Prague

OLD T OWN  73

left to see the portal of r Church of St Gall
the house called “At the Kostel Sv. Havla
Two Golden Bears”. Havelská. Map 3 C4. X Můstek.
The Renaissance build- Tel 222 318 186. Open 11:30am–
ing was constructed 1pm daily. 5 12:15pm Mon–Fri,
from two earlier houses 8am Sun. ^ 7 ∑ tyn.cz
in 1567. The portal was
added in 1590, when Dating from around 1280,
wealthy merchant this church was constructed
Lorenc Štork secured to serve an autonomous
the services of court German community in the
architect Bonifaz area known as Gall’s Town
Wohlmut, who had (Havelské Město). In the 14th
designed the spire on century, this was merged
the tower of St Vitus’s with the Old Town. In the
Cathedral (see pp102– 18th century, the church
105). His ornate portal was given a Baroque facelift
with reliefs of two bears by Giovanni Santini-Aichel,
is one of the most who created a bold façade
beautiful in Prague. decorated with statues of
Arcades dating from saints by Ferdinand Brokoff.
the 16th Rich interior furnishings
century include paintings
have been by the leading
preserved in Baroque artist
Church of St Nicholas in the Old Town the inner Karel Škréta, who
courtyard. In is buried here.
closed all monasteries not 1885, Egon Erwin Kisch, Prague’s best-known
engaged in socially useful activ- known as the “Furious market has been
ities, the church was stripped Reporter”, was born here. held in Havelská
bare. In World War I, the church A German-speaking Street since the
was used by the troops of Jewish writer and Middle Ages, these
Prague’s garrison. The colonel in journalist, he was days it sells such items
charge took the opportunity to feared for the force of A statue on the as flowers, veg etables,
restore the church with the help his left-wing rhetoric. façade of St Gall’s toys and clothes.
of artists who might otherwise
have been sent to the front. The
dome has frescoes of the lives of
St Nicholas and St Benedict by
Kosmas Damian Asam. In the
nave is a huge crown-shaped
chandelier. At the end of the war,
the church of St Nicholas was
given to the Czechoslovak
Hussite Church. The church is
now a popular concert venue.
w Old Town Hall
Staroměstská Radnice
See pp74–6.
e House at the Two
Golden Bears
Dům U Dvou Zlatých Medvědů
Kožná 1. Map 3 B4. X Můstek.
Closed to the public.
If you leave the Old Town Square
by the narrow Melantrichova
Street, make a point of turning
into the first alleyway on the Carved Renaissance portal of the House at the Two Golden Bears

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