Ghost Town: the Lost Buildings of Prague

The abandoned building was purchased by the church in 1631, and for nearly a century and a half survived as a seminary under the direction of Cardinal Arnošt of Harrach (despite a devastating fire in 1689, after which it was remodelled in a neoclassical style). By the final decades of the eighteenth century, a military academy had taken over, and in 1902 – following an ignominious two years as a stable for circus animals and a winter skating rink – this once splendid kingly palace was demolished as part of the city’s new wave of sanitation reform.

Long before the National Museum was built, another structure stood at the top of Wenceslas Square. For 500 years, a continuous curtain wall had separated Charles IV’s Nové Mĕsto from the open countryside beyond. It ran from the river in Karlín, down today’s Sokolska and onwards to the ancient citadel of Vyšehrad. From their elevated vantage point half-way along the wall, new arrivals to the city would have witnessed a bustling boulevard thronged with people buying and selling horses; and so naturally enough, the point of access at this particular point – the Gate of Saint Procopius – became known as the Horse Gate.

By the end of its life, the gate had become part of a garden promenade, replete with cafes and restaurants; and a walk along the wall became a popular weekend pastime. However, with the increasing expense of maintaining the ancient fortifications, Franz Josef I decreed that Prague should be an open city, and had the whole lot dismantled. The Horse Gate was demolished in 1875, but when plans were drawn up for the National Museum, the architect cleverly mimicked the three arches of Nobile’s design in the lower range of the new building, so a memory of the old gate remains even to this day.

Alas for Ernest Denis, his association with the railways was only a brief encounter. A year before they destroyed his statue in Malostranské náměstí, the Nazis also erased his name from the station, renaming it, predictably enough, Moldau Bahnhof. The Soviets were no kinder when they reinstated its original name: Prague-Tĕšnov. Without question, had it survived until 1989, this glorious building would once more have been called ‘Denisovo’, after that great friend of the Czechs. But by the time of the Velvet Revolution, it had already been reduced to rubble – demolished to make way for the Wilsonova highway.

Today, the only clue to the garden’s existence is in the street that once ran along its north-east border. Nowadays named Politických vězňů (Political prisoners street), it was at one time called Platea Angeli, after the 14th century pharmacist, Angelus of Florence. Invited to Prague in 1346 by King Charles IV, Angelus and his descendants were given the right to ply their trade in Malé Námĕstí, just off the Old Town Square. This specially cultivated garden, from which he plucked his herbal remedies, became famous throughout the civilized world.