OLD TOWN HALL

Description

Essentials about the Old Town Hall in brief

This building is always surrounded by crowds of people with cameras drawn. No wonder, since the Old Town Hall is one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings in Central Europe. Above all, the astronomical clock on its side wall magically draws the eye. A visit to the building, which stands on the southwest corner of the Old Town Square, is a must on any visit to Prague. Above all, the view of Prague’s old town from the top of the tower is magnificent.

The history of the Old Town Hall

In 1338, King John of Bohemia allowed the citizens of Prague’s old town to build a town hall. In 1364 the tower, almost 70 meters high, was completed. After 1360, the town hall was extended by a second building on the west side, which housed the meeting hall. The famous Prague architect Peter Parler built the Town Hall Chapel in the tower, which was consecrated in 1381. Finally, in 1410 the famous Town Hall Clock went into operation.

In 1784, the Town Hall advanced to become the administrative seat of the united city of Prague, which until then had consisted of four independent towns. In the middle of the 19th century, a new eastern wing in the neo-Gothic style was added to the Old Town Hall. At the end of the Second World War, the Town Hall was severely damaged in the Prague Uprising and had to undergo extensive restoration. Six axes of the burned down seven-axis neo-Gothic extension were demolished. In its place today is a small park with a memorial to the fallen of the uprising.

Since 1945, the building has no longer served as the town hall; the town administration is now based in the New Town Hall. The historic rooms, including the tower, are open for viewing today. By the way, in front of the Town Hall there are 27 crosses embedded in the pavement. They commemorate the 27 leaders of the Bohemian Estates Uprising in 1621 who were publicly executed in front of the Town Hall.

The façade of the Old Town Hall

Apart from the astronomical clock, the bay window with ⅝-closer is the most remarkable architectural detail on the facade of the town hall. The oriel belongs to the Gothic oriel chapel, begun around 1360 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. While the tracery of the spandrels and the ornamental pediments crowned with creepers are still largely original, the columned figures under the canopies are a 19th century addition. Only the statue of the Virgin Mary on the left corner of the building is a copy of a sandstone figure created in 1381. The original, called the Old Town Madonna, is now in the Museum of the Capital City of Prague.

The interior of the Old Town Hall

The building complex of the Old Town Hall contains several historical halls. The oldest is the Old Council Hall, which dates back to the 15th century. The city council and the city court used to meet in it. Besides valuable historical furniture, there is a richly painted coffered ceiling from the Renaissance period and a baroque room stove in the Council Hall. The largest hall of the Town Hall is the so-called Brožík Hall from 1910, named after the large-format paintings by the history painter Václav Brožík. Under the Town Hall there is a Romanesque-Gothic basement complex.

The astronomical clock of the Old Town Hall

The astronomical clock on the southern wall is the main reason for most tourists to visit the Old Town Hall. Built at the end of the 15th century, the clock is one of the main sights and one of the most popular photo motifs of Prague. The clock is a masterpiece of Gothic science and technology and one of the most valuable cultural monuments of Prague.

The history of the astronomical clock

The astronomical clock was not built in one piece, but grew over the centuries. For a long time, the movement was attributed to a clockmaker named Jan Růže alias “Master Hanuš” and his assistant Jakub Čech, as the two were mentioned as creators in a repair report from the 16th century. However, today it is known that Jan Růže and Jakub Čech were not the original designers of the clock, but were involved in its reconstruction later.

One of the oldest parts of the clock is the mechanical movement with the astronomical dial. The movement was built in 1410 by the clockmaker Nicholas of Kaaden according to the plans of Johannes Schindel, who was a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Charles University in Prague. The stone carvings and sculptures around the astronomical dial were made in the workshop of the famous Czech sculptor Peter Parler.

Only in a second phase, around 1490, a calendar was added below the astronomical dial, apparently the work of the aforementioned clockmakers Jan Růže and Jakub Čech. The entire clock facade was richly decorated with striking sculptures in the style of the Czech Vladislav Gothic.

In 1551, Jan Táborský z Klokotské Hory was commissioned by the Prague City Council to maintain and restore the Town Hall Clock. He introduced the calendar drive and the half hour. He also installed two sundials on both sides of the dial to make the clock mechanically independent.

It was not until the 17th century that figures were added to the clock on either side of the dials. The time when the astrological tables displayed in the two windows above the astronomical dial were exchanged for the figures of the twelve apostles is not clearly known. Historically, the existence of the apostles has been documented only since 1860. Every hour on the hour, veritable crowds of onlookers gather in front of the clock to see the well-known procession of the twelve apostles, which starts moving to the sound of bells.

The dials of the astronomical clock

The astronomical one has two dials: the astronomical dial with time and astronomical indications on the top, and the calendar dial on the bottom.

The astronomical dial has three different hands. First is the sun hand, on which the sun shifts throughout the year. Second, the moon hand, on which the moon shifts throughout the year and rotates on its axis at the same time to indicate the phases of the moon. And third, the ecliptic with the signs of the zodiac, a rotating dial for displaying the current position of the sun and moon in the zodiac.

The calendar is a calendar that counts the months and days. The outer edge of the disc consists of 365 segments, each of which has four fields. Seen from the inside, the first field contains the day of the month, the second the Sunday letter, the third the name day, with the consecrated name days written in red, and the outer field shows the initial syllables of the Cisiojanus (a mnemonic poem that, as a verse calendar, helps in dating the immovable saints’ days and feast days of the Roman Catholic Church).

The legend of Master Hanuš

Like many other important historical objects, the astronomical clock is also the subject of numerous legends. The most famous is that of Master Hanuš, the alleged creator of the clock.

After completing the clock, Master Hanuš explained his construction to the Prague councilors. All agreed that they had never seen such an impressive piece of work. Although Hanuš affirmed that he was richly pleased that he had been able to complete this one work at all, jealousy began to gnaw at the councilmen. As Hanuš soon received offers from several towns for new tower clocks, they arranged a terrible deed.

One night, criminals entered the master’s bedchamber and gouged out both of his eyes. Hanuš survived the attack, but from then on he languished. But the cowardly deed was avenged, because master Hanuš got up for one last deed: He let the sound guide him to the clock, and when the clock struck the hour and the complicated gears began to move, he put his hand into the clockwork and brought it to a halt. Badly injured, Master Hanuš dragged himself home, where he died soon after. After his deed, no one could repair the Prague astronomical clock for a hundred years.