An Important Point in Prague

At the corner of Ovocný trh and Celetná Street, near the Templ, supposedly a former Templar seat, stands the House of the Black Madonna (no. 569). On the façade at the sharp angle of the building is an early Baroque statue of a Black Virgin behind a grille. This seventeenth-century work was moved in 1911 to the new house built to J. Gočár’s design on the site of the old one. The symbolism of Black Madonnas refers to the telluric characteristics of places, and there is thus reason to believe that its position at this prominent spot is no coincidence. We do not know whether the statue was always behind a grille as it is today; the name House of the Golden Grille even became established. Yet we may see in it the crossing of important lines of force in the city. (See Black Madonna.)