Portman’s House

Near the château, in the Záhraď district, house no. 75 was the home of the well-known printer and collector Josef Portman. Two ground-floor rooms contain unique murals by his friend Josef Váchal (1884–1969), painter, printmaker, writer and mystic. Painted in 1920, they cover every square centimetre of walls and ceilings, depicting a wide variety of mystical visions, devils and monsters. There are also images of the Virgin Mary and a fantastic landscape with a castle. The rooms were originally furnished with furniture hand-carved and painted by Váchal with similar motifs; it is now held in storage by the Museum of Czech Literature at Staré Hrady. The building and its then owner appear in Váchal’s Bloody Novel as the so-called Portmoneum. The Paseka publishing house, which bought it from the National Gallery in Prague in 1991, is now working to save this unique artistic monument. After restoration, a museum dedicated to Váchal and Portman is to open here.