Tour Details
Duration
3 hours
Product Type
Tour
Venues
- House of the Black Madonna
- Municipal House
Photos & Highlights
- Tour of Art Nouveau architecture in Prague
- Led by local architecture scholar
Select a date
Tour Description
At the dawn of the 20th century, Prague exploded with artistic and intellectual activity, a new way of seeing the world—an “art nouveau” that transformed many major capitals across Europe. During this three-hour walking tour of Prague's Art Nouveau movement, we’ll dig deep into this movement, learn about its leaders, and see some great art and architecture, including the House of the Black Madonna, the first-ever Cubist house.
Prague Art Nouveau Tour
Our walk will start at the first-ever Cubist building, the House of the Black Madonna, designed by Josef Gočár, where we’ll consider how it and other structures reflect varied Czech tastes at the turn of the century. Born out of the artistic movement that began in Paris, this balanced, geometric style spread throughout Europe, but Prague remains unique as the only city that contains examples of both Cubist and Rondocubist architecture.
Varying from day to day, this walk may then veer in any number of directions, depending on the interests of the group and guide. We could stroll through the heart of Prague’s New Town, visiting many wonderful examples of Art Nouveau, such as the beautiful Lucerna bar (once owned by Vaclav Havel’s family) and the elegant Grand Hotel Europa—both fantastic examples of the ways the city landscape flourished in the early 20th century. Ahead of your visit, you may want to read more about how Art Nouveau impacted capitals across Europe.
"In my opinion, the Art Nouveau walk is a must for every Prague visitor."
Turn-of-the-Century Optimism
A stop at the Prague train station, constructed in 1901, will allow us to use its ornate façade as a backdrop to look at some of the basic ideas behind Art Nouveau as a revolutionary reaction against classicism. There, we can also look at how industrialization and modernization—in this case, the advent of trains—fueled the artistic movement.
We may wind through the Old Town (also the subject of our Introductory Prague Walking Tour) to seek out Municipal House, a significant piece of architecture that ties our exploration of the city’s landscape back to the people who really live here. This elaborate, detailed building is also a landmark of Czech independence—it was here, in the days following WWI, that T.G. Masaryk announced the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic.
Architectural Gems Around Every Corner
Time permitting, we may jump onto one of the trams that crisscross Prague and make our way to one of the city’s residential areas to watch the play of light and shadow across the facades of Cubist buildings. This movement functioned as a counterpoint to Art Nouveau, and the examples of this architecture are singular to Prague.
"A deceptively light-hearted approach from [our guide] that left us having learned a great deal and eager to learn more."
Regardless of the exact route that we travel together, our time will be spent breaking down the aesthetics of Art Nouveau, giving us the tools to interpret and appreciate the cityscape during the rest of our time in Prague and even elsewhere across Europe. We’ll also look at how the movement in Prague changed the city's social scene (a topic we explore further on our Prague Cafe Tour) and functioned in a greater European cultural context.
Where You'll Start
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125 Reviews
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Great variety of buildings and architects. Nice to see how things are being used today. Later we went to the slideshow at the Cubism museum and that was very helpful, it might have even been better to see it before the tour. Lenka was amazing, she knew every detail about every building.
Johanna
Reviewed on:
Oct 24, 2017
I could not have been happier with the entire experience. The material on the tour was fascinating. It was so unique and different than any other kind of tour I've ever been on. The guide was the real treat though. She was so knowledgeable and truly interested in the history of Prague as well as it's art history. I feel like I learned so much more than just about the architecture. She informed about the culture, the history, and what it was like to live through events in the Czech Republic. I feel like I got a true grasp on the area and I learned so many interesting things that I ended up researching further after the tour. I asked tons of questions and she was patient and gave terrific responses. She really cared about our group and about making sure we enjoyed Prague and even made sure to direct us back toward wherever we needed to go after the tour. It was definitely my favorite tour on our entire European trip because I just learned so much culturally which is exactly what I was looking for. I've told tons of people about Context Tours and I will booking more on any of my upcoming trips.
Julia
Reviewed on:
Oct 23, 2017
Everything was perfect but... it went over by 50 minutes so was almost four hours. I think the guides need to stay within the time frame. The guide’s knowledge and enthusiasm were terrific.
Mark
Reviewed on:
Oct 21, 2017
