On Na Příkopě, one corner still keeps the measured facades of 1839, and the outline of the two medieval plots it was built on.
At a glance
The house U Čížků stands where Na Příkopě meets Havířská, on the Old Town side of the street. It was built as a classicist corner house in 1839 to plans by the builder Johann Nowotny, joined to the neighbouring house in 1859, and has three street fronts: to Na Příkopě, to Havířská and to Provaznická. It has been protected as a cultural monument since 1958. Today it houses the Friday Hotel.
Key facts
- Where: Na příkopě 394/13 and Havířská 394/6, Staré Město, Prague 1
- Built: 1839, classicist, to plans by the builder Johann Nowotny
- Later changes: joined to the neighbouring house no. 395 in 1859; ground floor refitted in the 1960s; a modern storey added on top
- Protection: cultural monument, ÚSKP no. 41431/1-2099, protected since 3 May 1958
- Current use: Friday Hotel, with shops at street level
- Coordinates: 50.085025, 14.424423 · open in Google Maps
History
The name of the street, Na příkopě, means “on the moat”: it runs along the line that once separated the Old Town from the New. The heritage record for U Čížků shows that the older town survives even inside a nineteenth-century building.
According to the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), the corner house was built as a classicist building in 1839 to plans by Johann Nowotny. In 1859 it was joined with the neighbouring house, no. 395, which is why the Provaznická front reads as two houses: four bays belong to the former no. 395, and the half belonging to no. 394 keeps the same number of bays and its original entrance under a segmental arch. On Na Příkopě the eight-bay front still shows the medieval division into two houses, three bays and five. In the 1960s the ground floor was refitted with modern shopfronts.
What you see
The photograph shows the Na Příkopě front and the chamfered corner. The render is a pale grey-green, the architectural members a slightly darker tone. Tall pilasters rise through the upper floors on the right-hand side and at the corner, and horizontal cornices divide the storeys. The first-floor windows have framed surrounds with cornices above them; the NPÚ description adds a palmette frieze and a crowning cornice on consoles decorated with palmettes. Above, a red tiled roof carries a row of dormers.
The ground floor is given over to shop windows, and the corner bay carries a vertical sign reading HOTEL, with the hotel’s banners hung between the first-floor windows. The heritage record also mentions what the street cannot show: courtyard galleries on the second floor with their original classicist railings.
Practical information
- The exterior is visible from the pedestrian street at any time; the building is in private use.
- The building houses the Friday Hotel, whose address is Na Příkopě 13; the ground floor holds shops.
- Walk round the corner into Havířská to see the eleven-bay side front.
Getting there
The house is on the pedestrian part of Na Příkopě, between Wenceslas Square and Náměstí Republiky. The nearest metro station is Můstek, at the lower end of Wenceslas Square, a few minutes on foot.
Nearby
- Estates Theatre, at the end of Havířská.
- Koruna Palace, Prague, on the corner of Wenceslas Square.
- Municipal House (Obecní dům), at the far end of Na Příkopě.
Sources
- Památkový katalog (NPÚ), dům U Čížků, ÚSKP 41431/1-2099: date, builder, the 1859 merger, the description of the three fronts and the courtyard galleries.
- ČÚZK, RÚIAN address register: Na příkopě 394/13 and Havířská 394/6 are addresses of the same building.
- Friday Hotel, official website: the hotel’s address, Na Příkopě 13.
- Wikimedia Commons, Praha Stare Mesto Na prikope 13 Hotel Friday by JiriMatejicek: a second photograph identifying the building as Dům U Čížků / Hotel Friday.
- The building history on this page rests on the NPÚ record alone; we have not found a second independent account.
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