Municipal House

Art nouveau at full volume, with a concert hall inside

• Area Staré Město
• Type Landmark
• Time needed 1h

The Municipal House stands against the Powder Tower on Náměstí Republiky, built between 1905 and 1912 by Osvald Polívka and Antonín Balšánek as the city's grand public building. It is the fullest art nouveau interior in Prague, and it contains Smetana Hall, the concert hall where the Prague Spring festival traditionally opens. Czechoslovak independence was declared from this building in October 1918.

Getting there

Metro line B (yellow) to Náměstí Republiky brings you out beside it. Trams 6, 8, 15 and 26 serve the same stop. From the Old Town Square it is about seven minutes on foot east along Celetná, through the arch of the Powder Tower, and the building is immediately on your right. The main entrance is under the canopy on the square side, up a few steps, and there is level access to the cafe.

What you see

Stop outside first, for the mosaic in the semicircular gable above the entrance, a crowded allegory of Prague, and for the ironwork and the glass canopy. The cafe on the ground floor you can walk into without a ticket: tall windows, marble, mirrors and a fountain, and it is as good a room as anything upstairs. The guided tour takes you through the reception rooms. Smetana Hall is the centrepiece, a wide hall with a glazed ceiling, an organ at one end and sculptural groups flanking the stage. The room most people remember afterwards is the Lord Mayor's Hall, decorated throughout by Alfons Mucha, with the ceiling and the window glass all his design and the figures of Slav virtues around the walls. Other rooms are each by a different artist and each in a different scheme, from the oriental room to the panelled hall, and the staircases and lift cages are worth looking at closely.

What to pair it with

The Powder Tower is physically attached and takes half an hour. Celetná and the Old Town Square are seven minutes west, and the Spanish Synagogue is about ten minutes north-west.

When to go

The interiors are only open on the guided tour or when you attend a concert, and tours run a few times a day with limited places, so book ahead. Morning tours are quieter. A concert in Smetana Hall is the better option if you can get a ticket, because you see the hall in use and lit. The cafe is busiest between mid-morning and late afternoon; the quietest time there is first thing.

What is hard about it

You cannot wander the building. Without a tour ticket or a concert ticket you will see the cafe, the shop and the entrance hall and nothing else, which is a common disappointment. Tours are timed and sell out, and English tours are not offered at every slot. Smetana Hall is sometimes closed to tours when it is in use for rehearsal, and the tour route changes without notice as a result, so the room you most wanted may be the one you miss. Photography is restricted in some rooms. The cafe is expensive for what it is, though the room justifies one coffee.

Common questions

How long do you need at the Municipal House?

An hour for the guided tour. Add half an hour if you sit in the cafe afterwards.

Can you go in without a ticket?

You can enter the cafe, restaurant and shop freely. Smetana Hall and the decorated rooms need a tour ticket or a concert ticket.

Is the Mucha room part of every tour?

The Lord Mayor's Hall is normally included, but the route can change if rooms are in use, so ask when you book.

Nearby

• Charles BridgeThirty baroque statues on a fourteenth-century stone bridge
• Prague astronomical clockThe 1410 clock on the Old Town Hall, with the apostles on the hour
• Old Town SquareThe medieval square the city turns around, ringed by gabled houses
• ClementinumA Jesuit college holding a baroque library hall and an astronomical tower
• Church of Our Lady before TýnThe twin black spires over the Old Town Square
• Powder TowerThe Gothic gate where the coronation route began

More of the same kind

• Wenceslas SquareNot a square but a boulevard, and the stage for 1968 and 1989
• Golden LaneA row of tiny cottages built into the castle wall
• Dancing HouseGehry and Milunic's curved pair on the embankment
• Lennon WallA graffiti wall repainted continuously since 1980

Part of these routes

• The Old TownThe square, the clock, the two towers and the cubist corner, all within ten minutes of each other.
• Theatres and concert hallsWhere Don Giovanni opened, where the Philharmonic plays, and the theatre the nation paid for twice.
• Prague in three daysThe short list, ordered so each day holds together and the river is crossed as little as possible.
• Prague in five daysA fuller first visit: the Old Town, the castle, Malá Strana, the Jewish quarter and Vyšehrad.
• Prague at lengthEverything the other routes cover inside the city, spread over unhurried days with a castle at the end.