Hunting House Signs in Prague

It happens all too often with travel, when confronted with breathtaking beauty in numerous proportions a tourist would miss out a few little details that would have changed the whole experience.

That certainly is true with the Old Town in Prague once you get to the centre of the Old Town Square where everywhere you turn your jaw would drop at the imposing spires, church domes and palaces that make this Bohemian city feel almost like a stage from a fairytale. Such is its splendour that few tourists would notice the centuries old charming picture signs above doorways and under the gables along the city's cobbled streets. 

But I was a traveler with a mission: to find these allegorical symbols that used to distinguish one house from another, a practice that went as far back as the 13th Century and went on even after the system of numbering houses was introduced in Prague in 1770. 

The intricate signs usually tell something about the history of the house, the owner's name perhaps or his profession. But in many cases the reasons behind the symbols have been lost or forgotten which make it all the more mysterious. 

So for most of the morning on our second day in Prague, we scoured the streets of the Old Town and the Little Quarter hunting for these little treasures, an experience that made us appreciate all the more the ingenuity of the Czech people and the beauty of their heritage. 

These are the symbols and their house names that we have found in the city and what some of them mean: 

A. At The White Swan (top): found at Nerudova Street probably originated as a golden goose. 

B. At the Two Golden Bears. We had difficulty finding this house from the Old Town Squre and only accidentally found it by the time we have given up looking for it when we went through the Melantrichova Passage. This intricately designed portal was created in 1590 and is one of the most beautiful Renaissance portals in Prague. 

C1. At the Red Fox: On one of the Romanesque buildings overlooking the Old Town centre and just before the Melantrichova Passage, a golden Madonna and Child looks down to passersby. The rest of the house signs are found on the south side of Staromestske Namesti. 

D. Other house signs around the Old Town

Our search for house signs carried us towards Nerodova Street where the most fascinating symbols can be found on almost every other house. 

E2. At The Golden Wheel: This is an alchemical symbol, the wheel representing a stage in the magnum opus, the process by which lead was purportedly turned into gold. 

F. At The Red Lamb is a scarlet sheep adorning the facade of this house that has an alchemical significance that is so arcane that no one seems to be able to explain. The tale of Santiago, the Shepherd (Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist) perhaps? 

G. At The Golden Key is a form of advertisement used but the castle goldsmiths in the 17th Century who used to live in this house. 

H. At The Two Suns (No. 47) is the birthplace of the Czech poet and author Jan Neruda (1834-91) whom the street is named. 

I. At the Three Fiddles: (No. 12) is home to a family of violin makers in the early 18th Century and the sign advertised their trade. They say that a demonic trio screeches their instruments here on moonlit nights. 

J3. At the Green Lobster, the Golden Horshoe and Other Signs

When you visit Prague, don't forget to look up and notice these quirky house signs. I'm sure that it would surely make walking on its picturesque streets all the more enjoyable.