Prague - House at the Golden Deer

The land of the present house undoubtedly belonged to the jurisdiction of the neighbouring Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas. Its parcelling probably took place after the great fire of 1541. Shortly before 1558 the first house was built on the plot by the builder František Tondl. It was extended in 1566 and at the same time another plot of land was purchased from the monastery. By the end of the 16th century, the house was further extended, so that the price of the house in 1603 was in the higher category of the most impressive buildings in the Lesser Town.

In 1607, the rear of the house was modified, which increased the access to the monastery. In return, the monastery confirmed the acquisition of a vacant plot of land between today's houses no. 27 and 26/III, perhaps with a ban on building; this was probably the land with the alley to the monastery. The building ban was contractually confirmed in 1617 and remained vacant until 1636 when the ban was lifted. Subsequently, the land was developed in a short time, but no cellar was built there.

In the accommodation books of 1723, the description of the house mentions a cellar on the ground floor, two rooms and two storerooms, a hall, a kitchen and a pantry upstairs facing the street. At that time the house was already owned by Jan Kašpar Friedrich. The owner, in agreement with the owner of the neighbouring house from 1723, prepared a Baroque reconstruction of the entire house.

At that time, Jan Kašpar Friedrich rebuilt the entire building "at considerable expense to decorate the village". The authorship of the architectural design and the execution of the construction work is attributed to Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, but is not directly documented. Similarly, the authorship of the deer sculpture is attributed to Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff, but again it is not directly documented. The attribution is based on the fact that both artists also worked at the same time for the neighbouring Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas.

The builder and owner of the house, Jan Kašpar Friedrich, died in 1753.

Further building alterations took place sometime before 1790. Especially at that time, the windows opposite the church of St. Thomas were enlarged. At the same time, it was permitted to add another floor in the future. This increase was prepared again in 1836, but was not finally realized. Classical interventions were then limited to minor things. Of modern origin are some alterations (mainly from 1951) in the restaurant 'U Schnell' on the ground floor.

The two-story row house has a habitable attic and only a small skylight courtyard. The core is from a Renaissance building, including cellars and perimeter stonework. The entire façade is richly decorated with stucco and sculptural additions. The ground floor is covered by a continuous banded rustication, the central risalit is broken by a pair of identical stone portals, segmentally topped, with a double offset.

The windows are framed by rectangular jambs backed by stucco and parapet cornices, with a wide portal (originally probably a shop) with stone jambs and a new brick sill in a separate section to the right.

The 1st floor windows have stone moulded surrounds, in risalit with tumbled sills, the cased suprafenesters decorated with moulded cartouches with lion heads and surmounted by fluted cornices. The windows of the second floor are also flanked by stone lining, under the parapet cornices there are chabrak motifs, above the windows volute-like scrolls and mascarons, in the centre of the risalit there is a large stucco cartouche with a figural motif. The extensions above the windows end in a crown moulded cornice, which they frame. A wide dormer with rich sculptural decoration and a segmental gable, topped with three busts of unknown purpose, is built into the hipped mansard roof.

The axial part of the symmetrical part is decorated with a sculpture of St. Hubert with a deer in a nice, probably by F. M. Brokof from 1726, in the centre of the risalit between the windows on the first floor.

The cellars, mainly defined by Renaissance walls in the central part of the building, have brick vaults probably dating back to the 8th century. The vaulting system of the ground floor dates from the same period in the same places, but is older in the side tracts.

The passageway runs off axis in the southern half, and is of High Baroque style, alternating plaques with cruciform vaults set into the side mouldings. The entrances are framed by segmental supraports. The richly shaped staircase, adjoining the passage at the back left, is arched on the landings by plaques, also dating from the 18th century.

The layout of the ground floor has been somewhat clarified by the newly inserted partitions, as have the upstairs and attic, which now have only flat-roofed rooms.

The house is currently privately owned. It is used for housing and on the ground floor for the restaurant "U Schnellů".