House of the Black Madonna

The House of the Black Madonna (Dům U Černé Matky Boží) is a Cubist building in the Old Town of Prague at the corner of Celetná Street and Ovocný trh, No. 569.^[1][2] It was designed by the architect Josef Gočár and built by the construction firm of Matěj Blecha.^[1]*

Construction

The house was built in 1911–1912 as a commercial building with a café on the first floor furnished with a Cubist interior.^[2] It stands on the site of two Empire-style houses.^[1] Prague artists used to meet in the original first-floor café.^[3] The Heritage Catalogue of the National Heritage Institute describes it as the first monumental realisation of Cubist architecture in Prague.^[1] The house has an irregular pentagonal plan and a reinforced concrete frame. The main east front is angled in the middle and has balconies on the first floor.^[1] At the north-east corner, at first-floor level, a Baroque statuette of the Madonna with the Child stands behind a simple grille.^[1] Original Cubist elements have survived: the entrance grille, the balcony railings and the grille of the spiral staircase.^[1]

Alterations

In 1914 the second and third floors were adapted, in 1920 a basement restaurant was created to a design by Ladislav Machoň, and in 1925 shop windows were installed on the ground floor.^[1] In 2005, after an extensive reconstruction, the first-floor café was reopened. Today the house contains a museum, a café and a shop on the ground floor.^[1]

Heritage protection

The house has been a cultural monument since 1958 and a national cultural monument since 1 July 2010.^[1]

Sources

1. Národní památkový ústav (Památkový katalog)
2. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy (Praha virtuální)
3. Městská část Praha 1