Prague Old Centre (Staré Město and Josefov)

Smetana established his first music school in the 'Golden Griffon' in 1848 and also lived here until 1856. Of the four daughters born here only one survived.

The St. Nicholas church in the old town was built in 1732-35, then secularised. In the second half of the 19th century it became a Russian orthodox church (visits by Tchaikovsky, 1888). Bendl and Fibich worked here as musicians. Since 1920 it is a church of the Czech protestants (Hussites). Many concerts are given here.

In the 'Golden Unicorn', the singer Josefa Hambacher (later Mrs. Dušek) was born in 1754. It was also the house of the jurist and amateur-composer Jan Nepomuk Kaňka; he was a friend of Beethoven, who visited him repeatedly in 1796.

The gothic house 'In the Bell' was, according to the novelist Svatopluk Čech, Matěj Brouček's residence; the novel inspired Janáček to his opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (1920). Now concert hall and gallery.

Beethoven visited his benefactor prince Kinský in July 1812; the latter died by accident some months later. The fine palace from 1755-65 is a museum today.

Franz Xaver Partsch, cantor in the Týn church, died here in 1822.

The famous organ of the Týn church was built in 1671 by J.H. Mundt; pipes and actions were ruined in 1893, but restored in 2000 (II/p/29). The most renowned organist was Josef Seger from 1741 until his death in 1782.

In the 'Black Sun' lived the composer Leopold Koželuch and, from 1769 until her marriage with F.X. Dušek in 1776, Josefa Hambacher.

The former Etablissement Goldschmidt ('Gogo') was a meeting point of artists. Mahler spent some nights here to have a quiet place to compose.

The theatre was built in 1781-3 and successively called 'Ständetheater' , 'Nostitztheater' , 'Neues Deutsches Theater' and 'Tylovo divadlo'. A highlight in its history is the glorious première of Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1787. Weber worked here as conductor (1813-16), so did Škroup and Mahler (1885-6). The song Kde domov můj by Škroup, now the Czech national anthem, sounded here for the first time as a part of the play Filovačka (1834) by Josef Kajetan Tyl. Other musicians who appeared here were Paganini (1828), Liszt (1840) and Berlioz (1846). After the restoration of 1991, the theatre was renamed into the Czech equivalent of the first name and made suitable again for spoken drama and 18th century opera.

In the 'Silver Rose', Gustav Mahler lived from August until December 1885.

The street 'V Kotcích' is called after the (demolished) Kotzentheater, the forerunner of the Ständetheater (> 2110). In this theatre, Mozarts Entführung was produced in 1783, his Figaro in 1787 and in the same year the first performance of his Prague Symphony.

In the 'Stone Ship', Josef Mysliveček lived 1740-63; the original façade was replaced in 1800.

House of count Ludwig Hartig, amateur musician and composer (the 'Hardegg' in Mörike's novel Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag). Josef Proksch established a 'Musikbildungsanstalt' here, at which Smetana studied from 1843 until 1847.

The 'Golden Melon' was from 1851 successively a dance school, the club of artists (>1530) with many concerts and until 1939 the piano shop of Vincenc Micka, who had contacts with von Bülow, Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Rakhmaninov and Grieg.

In the 'Golden Cock' is an interesting shop of musical instruments and a display of violin making materials.

František Xaver Pixis worked as organist in the St. Martin's church 'at the walls'.

In the 'Three Golden Lions', the opera manager Pasquale Bondini and Mozart stayed in October 1787 during the preparations of the Don Giovanni première.

The Don Giovanni librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte stayed in 1787 in the 'Platteis' building, just opposite the 'Three Lions'. Liszt gave recitals here in 1840 and 1846 in the historic concert hall. The building became a shopping mall; main entrance in Národná street.

On 20.II.1880 Dvořák and his guest Tchaikovsky visited the brewery and beer-house 'Little Bear', to their great pleasure.

The convict of the Jesuits became in 1786 a concert hall and ballroom. Mozart heard Figaro melodies here (11.I.1787) and Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner, von Bülow and Rubinstein gave concerts. From 1851 until 1903 it housed the 'organ school', at which Dvořák (1857-59) and Janáček (1874-75) studied. For a short while it was used as a movie studio.

Smetana lived here 1868-76 and composed Libuše and a part of Má Vlast, incl. Vltava [The Moldau].

Smetana lived here 1863-68 and composed The Bartered Bride. The famous café 'Slavia' is in the same building.

The building from 1883 of the Prague water-company replaced a water mill formerly belonging to the Mysliveček family (> 1460 and 1710). The Smetana museum was established here in 1986; on the terrace (with splendid panorama), is a statue of Smetana from 1984.

Count Pachta invited Mozart for dinner on 6.II.1787, but at first asked him to compose the promised German Dances; so he did at the spot (KV 506). (The location is insure; possibly the event took place in another, now demolished, Pachta palace on the corner of Mikulandská and Národná street). Beethoven was a guest here too. The 'Prager Singakademie' occupied a building in the former palace garden at the river between 1840 and 1899; it was demolished at the beginning of the 20^th century.

Gluck worked as organist in the St. Anna church and in the church sv. Jana na zábradlí , the Slovene composer Jacobus Gallus (alias Handl or Petelin) was the cantor from 1586 until his death in 1591. Both churches have been demolished, but a plaque reminds of Gallus’s career.

The chapel from 1391, in which Jan Hus promoted a liturgy in vernacular (1402-15), was reconstructed and became a memorial room. The wall paintings are enlarged copies of Hussite song manuscripts.

Rudolf Friml, composer of operettas and film music, was born here in 1879 - he lived from 1908 until his death in 1972 in the USA.

House of the violinist, conductor and teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis, from 1810 until his death in 1842. Chopin visited him in August 1829 and met with the cello virtuoso Julius Klengel. The building houses a theatre academy now.

The schoolboy Josef Mysliveček lived for some time in this former Jesuit convent.

Eliška Krásnohorská, a librettist of operas by Smetana, Bendl and Fibich, was born here in 1847.

The first conservatory of the German speaking countries was established in 1811 in the former Dominican monastery of Prague with sponsoring by the nobility; in 1884 it moved into the actual building (> 2500).

Count Clam-Gallas organised numerous concerts in his palace. Beethoven played here in 1798; he had already written compositions for the countess, Josephine Clary, before her marriage (>1210). Also visits by Weber. The imposing palace, built 1713-19, now shelters the municipal archive (incl. a collection of autographs by Dušek) and is used for concerts.

House of Johannes Kepler, whose ideas about the ‘music of the spheres’ inspired Hindemith to his symphony Harmonie der Welt.

The huge block of the Klementinum was developed by the Jesuits and included churches, a theatre, library, printing-office, several schools and finally the university, at which Gluck studied 1728-34. It was secularised in 1773. Today it houses the state and university library, with 4 million manuscripts and books, including many musicalia. Concerts are given in the 'mirror chapel' since 1955.

The music department of the municipal library includes more than 150 thousand volumes.

In the former house of Jaroslav Ježek (1906-1942), one can visit on Tuesday afternoon a memorial room of the composer with authentic objects. Jazz is an essential ingredient of Ježek’s compositions.

Since 1884 the main building of the Prague Conservatory.

The Rudolfinum was built in 1876-81. The Dvořák hall is the usual platform of the Czech PO. Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Paderewski, Reger and numerous Czech masters have appeared here and in the present time it is often used for Supraphon recordings. Many sculpted portraits of composers from Palestrina to Schumann can be seen, but no single Czech! The Dvořák monument by Jan Wagner was erected only in 1956 in front of the building.

Plaque of Gustav Mahler in the pavement of the bridge. Mahler was born and spent his youth on Czech soil (> cz7 and 8) and maintained strong ties with the country.

House of Max Brod in the period 1914-39. Brod is best known as Kafka's friend and biographer but he was a gifted composer too and he made the German translations of Janáček's operas.

The most prominent cantor of the Staronová synagogue was (1880-81) Karel Weis, composer of successful operas and folk music arrangements.

František Škroup, although not of Jewish extraction, worked as organist of the Spanish synagogue (1836-45) and composed songs for the services.

In the monastery of the charitable brethren, F. X. Brixi died of tuberculosis in 1771 and was buried there. A memorial tablet at the church sv. Šimon a Juda mentions organ playing by Haydn and Mozart, though for a Prague visit by Haydn there is no indication.

The organist and composer Josef Seger was buried in 1782 in the St. Castilius church.

Max Brod was born in 1884 at Haštalská 41 (cadastral number čp.1031). From 1885 on the family lived at nr. 15 (čp. 790) in the same street. But the numeration is dubious: another list mentions čp.1031 = nr. 25, čp.790 = nr. 11.

In his house 'The Raven', the music lover Ignaz Kleinwächter was visited by Weber, Kalliwoda, Vieuxtemps and Spohr.

Second Prague house of Gustav Mahler, 1885-86 (NB: the address in Dlouhá street, mentioned in some sources, refers to the same house with cadastral number čp. 618; the street plan has changed after Mahler's stay, the situation is unclear).

A 'redoute' flourished in this house in the 18th century; possible visit by Mozart. In the next century it was used as concert hall of the conservatory; Hummel, Franz Xaver Mozart and Liszt gave recitals.

The organ of St. Jacob's was built by Abraham Stark in 1704 with 2 manuals and 46 stops but enlarged in 1941 up to 3 manuals and 73 stops. The great renaissance composer Philippus de Monte, who worked in Prague from 1577 until he death in 1603, was buried here, but his grave is not marked.

In the 'Neues Wirtshaus' [new inn], the old name of the hotel 'Golden Angel', Mozart is said to have met the poor harpist Josef Häusler ('Copánek'), who improvised so well that the composer provided him of a new theme, which the grateful man proudly showed to every music lover he met during the rest of his life.

Memorial tablet for Škroup's song Kde domov můj, later the Czech national anthem.

The community house was built in 1911 in flamboyant art nouveau style; the Smetana hall is the platform of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. The organ is by Jan Tuček, 1912; III/p/70, electric action. Near the entrance is a bust of the conductor Václav Talich (1883-1961).