Hermetic Symbols

The buildings around the second courtyard of Krumlov Château date from Vilém’s time. They bear mythological, allegorical and biblical frescoes, including Vulcan, Temperance and Fortitude. Other wall paintings in the château include a cycle of the planets. On the corner of Na louži square and Široká Street stands Jakub Krčín of Jelčany’s former house, no. 54, decorated in 1570 with wall paintings of illusionistic windows and figures. The most interesting building for Hermetic and specifically alchemical symbols is undoubtedly no. 53 in Latrán. It is a corner house: the lunettes facing the main Latrán street contain frescoes, unfortunately now badly worn, showing ten stages of human life from a small child to an old man. Similar scenes are found in Litoměřice. Alchemical symbols and furnaces in sgraffito decorate the lunettes facing Klášterní Lane, leading to the former Minorite monastery courtyard. The monastery complex also includes a cloister, now used as a museum store. Its courtyard contains the so-called Paradise Garden with a chapel of Our Lady of Einsiedeln, housing a mid-seventeenth-century statuette of the Black Mother of God.