Old postcards of Prague   Spálená Street

438 - A part of Spálená Street near Charles Square

On the eastern side of the street (on the right) we can still see two-storey buildings with Baroque facades and a large number of small shops. This part of the street represented a compact block of buildings between Charles Square and Lazarská Street which was, at the beginning of the 20th century, replaced by the bulky building of the Imperial Royal Criminal Court (see picture 385). On the right we can also see a part of the early Baroque building Na Hřebínku, No. 5, and behind it the long building No. 6, constructed on the site of two mediaeval structures, housing a brewery and a malt house. In the 18th century the building housed a well-known pub, later a meeting place of Czech patriots who founded here in 1848 the political organization called (after the name of the pub) U Slovanské lípy, (The Slavonic Lime-Tree). The leaders of the organization included such renowned personalities as F. Palacký, F. L. Rieger, K. J. Erben or V. Hanka. The enclosure (No. 7) between buildings Nos. 6 and 8 (the latter, with a window in the side wall, was called U Černého mouřenína, i.e. The Black Moor) served as a stonecutter’s workshop. Originally this lot was the site of a cemetery linked with the St Lazar Hospital, later there was a green market. On the left, on the corner of Myslíkova Street, we can see a part of the low building No. 171 (see picture 355). In the middle we can see two passing trams on the already electrified route Spálená Street - Purkyňovo Square in Královské Vinohrady which allows us to date the picture to the time immediately following the electrification of the line, i.e. after February 4, 1898.

PHOTOGRAPHIC POSTCARD. PICTURE 1898. Z. REACH, 1920s

439 - Spálená Street as seen from Lazarská Street, looking towards Ferdinandova Street

On the right we can see the front of the Holy Trinity Church (built in the years 1712-1713) at the former Monastery of the Trinitarian Order. The Order’s chief concern was bailing out of prisoners of war. It is on record that by 1830 the number of P.O.W.s freed by the order from captivity amounted to an incredible 1,400,000. In front of the Church front is the statue of St Jude Thaddeas by M. Braun and behind it the rectory, No. 80, reconstructed in 1787 from a part of the former trinitarian monastery abolished in 1783. The large four-storey structure U Římského císaře (The Roman Emperor), No. 78, housed headquarters of the Association for the Construction of the Academic House which in 1903 opened another students’ canteen in the building. The trams we can see on this double page were among Prague’s first motor street cars supplied by the Ringhoffer factory in 1897. They started to operate at the beginning of 1898.

PHOTOTYPE. L. J. ČECH, 1899

440 - A view of Spálená Street from its centre, looking towards Ferdinandova Street

The picture shows a street which is already full of shops and traffic. The busyness of the street is underlined by the tram service connecting the city centre with Královské Vinohrady and further with Vršovice (at the end of the street we can see the terminus of this line). The three buildings with decorous facades in the middle of the left side of the street, which extend to the intersection with Ostrovní Street, contrast with the simple Neo-Classical buildings on the other side, as well as with the first building on the left, No. 98. The old building, dating to the 16th century, has an entrance portal which is also imitated by the side entrances to the shops with their typical gate-leafs. The building offered services of a piano tuner, of a fashion parlour for gentlemen, and the funeral parlour of O. Riss. The value of the structure is also documented, at least for the year 1792, when the building was purchased for 3,500 guldens. The building No. 74 on the right, on the corner of Purkyňova Street, housed until 1903 the city library. The adjacent building, No. 75, was the home of the painter J. Mánes who died here in 1871.

PHOTOTYPE. K. BELLMANN, 1900

441 - Spálená Street - another view from its central part towards Ferdinandova Street

The row of buildings with prevalently Neo-Classical facades on the eastern side of the street is a foil to the late 18th-century Baroque building U Šmerhovských, No. 76, with a gable in the shape of an elongated arch, capped by a statue. The structure housed the export association for Bohemia and Moravia, the first Czech school of cooking Domácnost (The Household), and the Central Educational Foundation. The building was owned by the First Czech Imperial Royal Private Mutual Insurance Company, insuring against fire and hail, dating back to 1827. In the framework of its fire prevention, the company subsidized the country’s fire brigades. In 1903 property of the company was estimated at 10 million crowns. The building was demolished in 1907, together with the adjacent building No. 77, and both were replaced by a new Art Nouveau building of the insurance company constructed by O. Polívka.

PHOTOTYPE. L. J. ČECH, 1899

history Wenceslas Square    postcards Wenceslas Square