Mirror Maze Petřín

One of the nice places where you can spend a free afternoon is undoubtedly Petřín Park. In addition to the famous lookout tower, you will find an equally interesting maze combining fun with a bit of history. In the system of mirrors, you can forget about the present and indulge in cheerful scenes. Of course, if you don’t get lost.

First, you have to go through a system of ordinary mirrors, where after several impacts you get the impression that there can be no way forward and backwards have definitely disappeared. You can see your image all around you. Yes, some will come up with a few tricks to successfully get out of the labyrinth, but this will deprive them of the magic of discovering the right turn.

Only then will you enter the much-mentioned hall of laughter with 14 distorting mirrors. Here, the skinny ones become fat or the small ones become big. Perhaps only a complete puritan would not be amused by his diverse portraits. However, the impression of the whole maze will be greatly influenced by the number of visitors. On a nice day, it is really crowded, which reduces the experience a bit. In particular, there is no need to find a way between the mirrors, which is of course a pity.

The Maze on Petřín dates back to 1891, when it was built according to the project of architect Wiehl for the Prague Jubilee Exhibition. It is an imitation of the former Gothic gate at Vyšehrad known as Špička. In 1893, it was moved to Petřín, where it stands to this day.

Michal Mine

The history of this former coal mine dates back to 1843, when the Austrian state began to dig two mine pits in Michálkovice near Ostrava. One of them, the so-called Michálkovice Pit. Michálkovice Pit No. 3, was then renamed after the late imperial court councillor Michael Laier to the Michal Pit. A major influence on the appearance of this extremely valuable area from the construction and technical point of view was the reconstruction completed in 1915, which was carried out according to the project of the prominent architect František Fiala.

The Michal Mine ceased its operation in 1994, now it has been declared a national cultural monument and is included in the indicative list of the Czech Republic for inscription in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. The tour route allows visitors to walk the same route that the miners took every day when they started work – it follows the miner’s path from the changing rooms to the pit itself in its entire length. Emphasis is placed primarily on the authenticity of the environment and detail, the intention was to preserve the entire area in its original form as if the people who worked here had just left and left everything in its place. You can see the chain changing rooms, the team’s bathrooms, the guild hall, the lamp room, the pit building, the bridge for the movement of the team from the lamp room to the pit building and the engine room with the original technical equipment, which represents a unique set of electric mining machines and compressors from the period of the beginning of electrification. The premises of the main building are often used for exhibitions, theater performances and other cultural and social events.

Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre

The Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre was founded as the first professional modern puppet stage by Prof. Josef Skupa (1892-1957) in Pilsen in 1930. Its protagonists – Spejbl and Hurvínek – had already successfully worked on the amateur puppet scene in Pilsen in the popular

cabaret programs. The theatre played as a touring stage based in Pilsen until 1943. In January 1944, prof. Skupa was arrested by the Gestapo, convicted of anti-fascist resistance and the theatre was closed by the Nazi authorities.

In February 1945, Skupa managed to escape from the burning prison in Dresden and after the end of the war, in October 1945, he opened the permanent stage of D S+H in Prague, where he has been based to this day. After Skupa’s death, the roles of both protagonists, Spejbl and Hurvínek, were taken over by his pupil Miloš Kirschner (1927-1996), who alternated with him in both title characters during Skupa’s lifetime. At the end of his life, Prof. Skupa appointed him his successor by a public document. The theatre thus successfully continued its artistic efforts to depict a grotesquely humorous and satirically seen world on stage. The main characters of all D S+H productions are Spejbl and Hurvínek – father and son, representing the contradictory view of the world of two generations. Spejbl entered the scene for the first time in 1920, Hurvínek in 1926.

Golden Lane

The Golden Lane, formerly called Zlatnická, was probably inhabited by goldsmiths. It was built between the Romanesque and late Gothic fortifications of the northern part of the Castle. Small houses were added to the fortification arches of the defensive wall, built by Benedith Ried around 1500, behind which the top of the wall rises. In the 16th century, there were emergency dwellings here, during the reign of Rudolf II, members of the castle guard, later the poor, lived here. At present, there are original shops, galleries and exhibitions, interesting for tourists. Among the attractions of the Golden Lane, we include the fact that in 1917 Franz Kafka had a study here in house No. 22.

Villa Tugendhat

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno in the Černá Pole district became the first monument of modern architecture in the Czech Republic and the fourth in the world to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002. The villa is referred to as a building that set new standards for modern living and is one of the basic works of world modern architecture – functionalism. It was designed for the Brno textile entrepreneur Mr. and Mrs. Tugendhat by one of the most important European architects of the time, the German Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who also designed all the details of the interior furnishings.

Functionalist gem

The house was revolutionary in its time for several reasons. The glass walls completely connected the house with the surroundings, some windows could even be completely lowered into the floor, and the fusion of the interior with nature in the garden was very impressive. The villa is also interesting from the structural point of view: it consists of a steel skeleton and the ceilings of the floors do not support walls, but only subtle chrome-plated pillars. The architect divided the villa into three floors, yet from the street view, the villa looks like a single-storey single-storey building. The main floor was divided into an entrance, social, working and dining area. In the basement there was a laundry room, storage, a photo chamber and a boiler room. The upper floor had a residential character, there were bedrooms, children’s rooms and nannies. The heating and cooling of the house using air conditioning is originally solved. The house was also equipped with an electrical security system. Most of these facilities were absolutely unique and, as furnishings of a family house, were several decades ahead of their time. It is therefore not surprising that the costs of construction and technical equipment of Villa Tugendhat exceeded 3.5 million crowns, which was normally enough to build more than thirty ordinary family houses at that time.

However, the Jews of Tugendhat did not enjoy the villa for long, in 1938 they emigrated to St. Gallen, Switzerland, and then to Venezuela for fear of the Nazis. During the war, the house was confiscated by the Gestapo and was damaged during the liberation of Brno. After the war, the house served various purposes, and in the early eighties of the last century it underwent a not entirely successful reconstruction, which deprived it, among other things, of the original equipment of the bathrooms and toilets. However, the basic layout of the building has been preserved in almost its original form.

Since January 1, 2010, Villa Tugendhat has been closed to the public due to the ongoing monument restoration. The reopening of the monument to the professional and lay public is planned for January 2012.

Powder Tower

The Powder Tower is a late Gothic building on the border of Na příkopech Street and Republic Square next to the Municipal House. It is one of the symbols of Prague. Celetná Street begins in the gate, which forms the first part of the royal route that leads from here to Prague Castle. From the 1st half of the 13th century, there used to be a gate called Abraham Lincoln. Odrná. It was replaced by today’s gate, originally called the New Tower, built directly into the Old Town moat, which lost its defensive sense after the foundation of the New Town (1348). The New Tower had primarily a representative function. It was founded in 1475 by King Vladislav Jagiellon, who then lived in the King’s Court on the site of today’s Municipal House. The construction, financed by the Old Town Municipality, was initially led by Wenceslas of Žlutice. Already in 1478 he was replaced by M. Rejsek of Prostějov. He completed the tower up to the upper gallery and richly decorated it. In 1484, however, the construction was stopped because King Vladislav moved from the neighboring King’s Court to Prague Castle. The unfinished tower, equipped with a temporary roof, served as a gunpowder warehouse at the end of the 17th century and has been called the Powder Tower since then.