The square as we know it today, very large and irregular in form that can be entered from any side of the Old Town, hasn’t always looked like this. The major renovation works of the ghetto with the creation of the Paris street in the early 20th century on the one hand, and the bombing of the eastern wing of the City Hall in 1945 on the other hand, gave new angles to the place and modified to a large extent the shape of this historic square.
The Baroque façade of the St Nicholas Church on the western side, ingeniously built so as to be appreciated from a short and narrow angle, can now be seen from a distance.
The story of the square can be retraced back to the Romanesque era, a time when it served as a market in the heart of the merchant district. Most of the palaces lining the place present with Baroque or Classical façades, but their walls and their cellars are much older, they date back to the Romanesque and Gothic eras. In the 14th century, a city hall was built to become the political center of the Old Town municipality, which possessed an independence charter. Several years later, the impressive Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the so-called “cathedral of merchants”, was built on the other side.
Several major events of Czech history took place here, the most tragic is recalled with a memorial in front of the city hall: following the defeat of Czech troops at the Battle of White Mountain, 24 leaders of the rebellion were decapitated here on the 12th of June 1621. The event marked the end for a long time of any attempt at independence from the Habsburg rulers.
From the middle of the 17th century up to 1918, a Marian column stood on the square. In 1918, when the Czech lands became independent and the First Republic was proclaimed, the column was put down as it was considered a symbol of the Austro-Hungarian absolutism. From then on, the proud figure of Jan Hus remained the sole focal point: this Czech reformer was burnt at the stake in 1415 for his heretical ideas, 5 centuries later he was considered a true symbol of national independence. The sculpture by Ladislav Saloun, Secession style (1915), shows him rising against all injustices and announcing a new era...
Among the magnificent houses and palaces surrounding the Old Town Square we should particularly mention the “Stone Bell House”, where renovation works enabled to discover the original medieval façade, the Goltz-Kinsky Palace with its elegant rococo decoration, or the House “U Minutu”, adorned with black and white sgraffiti.
How to get there:
Tramway: lines 17 - 18 stop “Staroměstská”.
Subway Green line A, station “Staroměstská”.
