Fodor's Prague by Fodor's Travel Guides

Author:Fodor's Travel Guides [Fodor’s Travel Guides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fodor's Travel
Published: 2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

Vyšehrad

s Sights

The district of Vyšehrad is dominated by the Vyšehrad Citadel and its many attractions, the most visible of which is the Bazilika sv. Petra a Pavla (Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul). But the neighborhood also incorporates the area around and below the castle, where there are a handful of other interesting sights.

A Cubist Walk s

Fans of 20th-century architecture should head below the rocky outcropping that’s crowned by Vyšehrad Citadel to find a satisfying smattering of cubist gems. Prague’s cubist architecture followed a great Czech tradition: embracing new ideas, while adapting them to existing artistic and social contexts to create something sui generis. Between 1912 and 1914, Josef Chochol (1880–1956) designed several of the city’s dozen or so cubist projects, and you’ll find a number of them in Vyšehrad.

Stroll down the staircase that leads from the citadel to the riverside, then peel off from the crowds by heading left and walking around 200 yards. Here, you’ll find an eye-catching three-family house at Rašínovo nábřeží 6–10. This cubist masterpiece was completed early in Chochol’s career, when his cubist style was still developing, so you can see a design touched with baroque and neoclassical influences, with a mansard roof and end gables. Cross the road for the best view of properties.

Once you’ve taken it all in, walk along the riverside back the way you came, then cross back over the road at the second pedestrian crossing. You’re now looking into the garden of another great work of cubist architecture, Chochol’s villa. The wall and gate of the house use triangular moldings and metal grating to create an effect of controlled energy. Head around to the front of the building (the street address is Libušina 3) to appreciate the property’s full, undulating effect, created by smoothly articulated forms.

From here, walk around the corner to Neklanova 2, another apartment house that is attributed to Chochol. It uses pyramidal shapes and a suggestion of Gothic columns. Finally, walk just down the street and you’ll come to Chochol’s own apartment house. Situated at Neklanova 30 (on the corner of Přemyslova), it’s a masterpiece in concrete. The pyramidal, kaleidoscopic window moldings and roof cornices make an expressive link to the baroque yet are wholly novel; the faceted corner balcony column, meanwhile, alludes to Gothic forerunners.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.