The Old Town Square - Czech Blog Post #3

Most of the cities and villages we visited while in the Czech Republic had a town square. It’s such a great idea, a centrally located place in town where residents can gather to spread information, host celebrations, or set up tents to hawk their wares.  

That first day we spent in Prague, my friend and I wandered all over the city, including the Old Town Square. Prague actually has many districts, but tourists are most familiar with Old Town, Lesser Town, New Town, the Castle Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter.

So what did we see in that square?

The Town Hall, on the southwest corner of the Square, was established in 1338 as the seat of the Old Town's local government.

 

The eastern neo-Gothic wing of the Town Hall was destroyed during the Prague Uprising on May 8, 1945, and was never rebuilt. The oldest part of the building is the southern wing with a beautiful tower with a bay-window chapel and a unique astronomical clock.

St. Nicholas Church is on the northwest corner. It was built between 1732-1737 on the site of a Gothic church from the 13th century which was also dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

On one end of the middle of the Square is the Jan Haus monument. Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague, who criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church.

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Hus was ultimately condemned by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake in 1415. The inscription on the statue reads, “milujte se praudy kazdemu”, which translates to “love each other truly”.

On the other end is the Mariánský sloup or Marian column, a religious monument consisting of a column topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The original column was erected in 1650, shortly after the end of the Thirty Years' War. It was demolished in November 1918, when the Austria-Hungary empire fell. In 2020, the column was reconstructed.

I wanted to save the astronomical clock, on the southern wall of the Old Town Hall, for last. The first recorded mention of the clock was in October 1410. Around 1490, the calendar dial was added and the clock facade was decorated with gothic sculptures.

When it chimes every hour between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m., each of the 12 apostles appear in the little windows at the top.