One of the eighteen houses of the Ungelt, the enclosed yard behind Týn Church where foreign merchants once paid their dues. Around 1835 it held a café that the historian František Palacký frequented.
At a glance
The Ungelt, also called Týn Yard (Týnský dvůr), is a complex of eighteen houses around an inner courtyard in the Old Town of Prague, between Týnská, Štupartská and Malá Štupartská streets. It began as an enclosed yard for the protection of merchants, and the customs duty collected there, the ungelt, gave the whole place its name. House no. 636, called the Vrbnovský House, stands on Malá Štupartská and is part of the complex protected as a single cultural monument. Today it houses the Hotel Metamorphis.
Key facts
- Where: Malá Štupartská 636/5, Staré Město, Prague 1, within the Ungelt complex
- Complex: Ungelt (Týn Yard), eighteen buildings around a passage courtyard, twelve of them on the yard itself
- Origins: a fortified merchants’ yard; Prague City Tourism dates its origin to the 12th century, and the NPÚ notes that some of its houses are partly Romanesque
- Protection: the Ungelt is a cultural monument, ÚSKP no. 44532/1-349, protected since 3 May 1958; Malá Štupartská 636/5 is among the addresses of the listed complex
- In the house: the U Komárků café, around 1835
- Current use: Hotel Metamorphis
- Coordinates: 50.088244, 14.424416 · open in Google Maps
History
The word týn means an enclosure, and the Ungelt was exactly that: a walled yard where foreign merchants arriving in Prague could stay, store their goods, trade and pay the customs duty. Prague City Tourism explains that the old Germanic word ungelt, the name of the duty, came in time to name the whole yard. The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) describes the complex as an originally enclosed court founded for the protection of merchants, whose houses have a complicated building history and are in part Romanesque.
A great fire in 1689 burned most of the Ungelt, and most of its houses now have Baroque facades from the rebuilding that followed. The best-known house of the complex is the Granovský Palace, which King Ferdinand I gave in 1558 to the customs officer Jakub Granovský of Granov. From 1981 the Ungelt was restored, and it reopened to the public on 18 December 1996.
Prague City Tourism singles out house no. 636, the Vrbnovský House, for its place in the cultural life of the city: around 1835 it held the U Komárků café, frequented by Czech cultural figures including the historian František Palacký. The NPÚ archive also holds a 1995 restorers’ survey of the plaster layers in no. 636, made to establish whether painted decoration survived beneath them.
What you see
The photograph shows the long street front of the house on Malá Štupartská. It has two storeys under a red tiled roof with small dormers, and the facade follows the gentle curve of the street. The ground floor is rendered in horizontal bands and opened by round-arched doorways and shop windows, each fitted with a pair of heavy wooden shutters. Above, the upper-floor windows sit in simple frames under a cornice with a row of small brackets.
The name of the hotel is painted on the plain band between the two floors, and the house number 5 is fixed at the corner. The inner courtyard of the Ungelt, with the arcaded loggia of the Granovský Palace, is reached through the passages of the complex.
Practical information
- The house is a hotel and is not open as a monument; the facade can be seen from Malá Štupartská at any time.
- The Ungelt courtyard is a public passage, with shops and cafés in the ground floors of its houses.
- A second entrance of the hotel is recorded on Commons at Týn 644/10, inside the yard.
Getting there
The Ungelt lies directly behind Týn Church, a short walk from Old Town Square. The house stands on Malá Štupartská, facing the church of St James. The nearest metro stations are Náměstí Republiky and Staroměstská.
Nearby
- Old Town Hall (Prague), across Old Town Square.
- Estates Theatre, a short walk south.
- Týn Church and the church of St James, on either side of the Ungelt.
Sources
- Památkový katalog (NPÚ), celnice Ungelt, ÚSKP 44532/1-349: the complex, its eighteen buildings, list of addresses including Malá Štupartská 636/5, and the 1995 survey of no. 636.
- Prague City Tourism, Týn Yard – Ungelt: origins, the name, the 1689 fire, the Granovský Palace, restoration and reopening, and house no. 636 with the U Komárků café.
- ČÚZK, RÚIAN address register: Malá Štupartská 636/5, Staré Město.
- Wikimedia Commons, photograph by JiriMatejicek of the hotel entrance at Týn 644/10.
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