Overview of Your Tour

Explore the radical new design aesthetics that swept across Europe at the turn of the century, on this Art Nouveau and Cubist architecture tour of Prague. With your expert historian guide to lead the way, delve into the dramatic social and political changes that took place in the Czech capital over the 19th and 20th centuries – and discover the ways in which those changes manifested themselves in new design movements across the city. Art Nouveau was embraced by the nationalist cause, which also promoted the invention of Cubist and Rondocubist architecture (building styles unknown outside of the Czech Republic).

Art Nouveau Across Europe

In France, it was known as Art Nouveau and Style Moderne, and when this modern manner came to prominence at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, it became known as Style 1900. It was also referred to as Style Métro (after Paris metro designer Hector Guimard) as well as Style Mucha (after the great Czech graphic artist whose posters are considered Art Nouveau par excellence). In Munich and Berlin, it was called Jugendstil, and in Austria-Hungary, it was known as the Sezession.

Call it what you will, the Art Nouveau movement left an indelible mark across Europe – and it was eagerly adopted in Prague.

Art Nouveau in Prague: a Whirlwind of National Revival Activity

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Prague was experiencing a whirlwind of national revival activity, and the movement was embodied in the form of Art Nouveau. From the Prague Main Railway Station and the monumental Municipal House, to the entire district of Josefov (the former Jewish ghetto), Art Nouveau architecture represents many of the city’s most significant sites.

During this Art Nouveau walking tour in Prague, you’ll learn to recognize the main features of the Art Nouveau style – from ginkgo biloba leaves on building façades and orientalist influences, to elaborate light fixtures, and curvy typography on shop signs that echo contemporary magazine and poster graphics.

We’ll visit the beautiful Lucerna bar (built by Vaclav Havel’s grandfather) and the elegant Grand Hotel Europa – examples of a moment of Czech optimism at the turn of the century – signaling the region’s transcendence of older ethnic grievances, and its readiness to join Europe by participating in European-wide avant-garde movements.

Cubist and Rondocubist Architecture in Prague; an Important Parallel

As an important parallel, we’ll travel back to the emergence of the Czech Cubist movement and trace its progress as it ultimately became the “national style” – and the only appropriate choice for the 1920’s Legiobanka, built to house the accounts of the WWI Legionnaires who fought for Czech and Slovak nationhood.

We visit examples of Prague’s Cubist and Rondocubist architecture (a building style unknown outside of the Czech Republic), including the House of the Black Madonna (created by Josef Gočár in 1910 as an urbane department store). In many respects, Prague’s Cubist architecture surpassed even Art Nouveau as a statement of the city’s newfound sense of modern sophistication and resurgent national identity.