House at the Golden and White Unicorn, Malá Strana, Prague, Bohemia, Czechia

"The House at the Golden and White Unicorn (also House at the Golden (White) Unicorn, or Wolkenstein House, Auersperk House, Beethoven Palace, Beethoven Palace) is originally a medieval, predominantly baroque bourgeois house No. 285/III of the palace type from the first half of the 18th century, located in Prague 1, Malá Strana, in Lázeňská Street No. 11. The house is included in the list of cultural monuments of the Czech Republic and protected as an immovable monument.

The two-story corner building with a mansard roof was created on the plot of the original St. John's cemetery near the perimeter wall by the gradual reconstruction and extension of two older buildings standing on this site. On the ground floor there is a visible remnant of a Johannite building, probably related to the nearby Johannite Command. In the basement, it is evident that the building was created by merging originally separate parts, and the irregular composition of the ground floor indicates its gradual expansion.

The original appearance of the external facades dates from 1731–1759. The facade to the yard is divided by panels. The hipped roof is hipped at the corners. The first and second floors have the same layout. In the eastern part of the 2nd floor, spaces with rich ornamental stucco ceiling decoration and Renaissance decorative paintings have been preserved. The entrance doors to these rooms are richly decorated with supraports. In the front part of the building, there is a late Baroque staircase, a classicist three-arm pillared staircase comes from the extensive classicist reconstruction of the building in 1839.

From the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the building served as the famous Prague hotel "At the Golden Unicorn", founded by M. Pinskorn and managed by Václav Treml since 1787. Among other things, two important music composers stayed there. In 1789 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and in 1796 Ludwig van Beethoven, whose bust by the sculptor Otakar Spaniel is located next to the entrance to the building.

Around 1878, the house was acquired by Engelhard-Dietrich, Count of Wolkenstein-Trostburg (1848-1922) and his wife Arnoštka Karolína, born in Nostic Rhieneck (1857-1930). After them, the house was called Wolkenstein House until the 1920s.

Malá Strana (Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", German: Prager Kleinseite) or more formally Menší Město pražské (English: Lesser Town of Prague) is a district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods.

In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center of the ethnic German (and since 16th century also Italian) citizens of Prague. It also housed many noble palaces while the right-bank towns were comparatively more bourgeois and more Bohemian Czech.

Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa]; German: Prag [pʁaːk]; Latin: Praga) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters.

Prague is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611).

It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.

Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas, and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. It is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.

Prague is classified as a "Alpha-" global city according to GaWC studies. In 2019, the city was ranked as 69th most livable city in the world by Mercer. In the same year, the PICSA Index ranked the city as 13th most livable city in the world. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2017, the city receives more than 8.5 million international visitors annually. In 2017, Prague was listed as the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul.

Bohemia (Latin Bohemia, German Böhmen, Polish Czechy) is a region in the west of the Czech Republic. Previously, as a kingdom, they were the center of the Czech Crown. The root of the word Czech probably corresponds to the meaning of man. The Latin equivalent of Bohemia, originally Boiohaemum (literally "land of Battles"), which over time also influenced the names in other languages, is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Boios, who lived in this area from the 4th to the 1st century BC Bohemia on it borders Germany in the west, Austria in the south, Moravia in the east and Poland in the north. Geographically, they are bounded from the north, west and south by a chain of mountains, the highest of which are the Krkonoše Mountains, in which the highest mountain of Bohemia, Sněžka, is also located. The most important rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava, with the fertile Polabean Plain extending around the Elbe. The capital and largest city of Bohemia is Prague, other important cities include, for example, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice and České Budějovice, Jihlava also lies partly on the historical territory of Bohemia." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

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Taken in: Bohemia / Hlavní město Praha / Praha 1 / Malá Strana (show map)

Taken on: July 14, 2019

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