Municipal House and Smetana Hall

Municipal House

July 3 (evening): After one day on the trams, we felt like old hands at traveling that way, so we took the appropriate tram to the Municipal House.

We had tickets for a concert in Smetana Hall: The Best of Mozart and Dvorák, played by the Prague Music Orchestra, a small chamber group.

By the way, apparently every European country can claim Mozart as their own--because he really did travel all over that continent. So on this night we would hear Mozart the way Prague musicians would interpret his music. But Mozart, despite coming first on the program, played second fiddle to Dvorák, as the majority of the program was devoted to the native son. That was fine with us...

But first, we would have dinner at the Municipal House, which is where Smetana Hall is located. I had made a dinner reservation for one of the two restaurants there, Restaurace Obecní dum. This was the more formal place, serving French cuisine.

We had no idea what we were in for that evening. I've already written about the magic of Prague. This place, this evening, was magic from start to finish.

(I can't claim credit for this photo; picked it up from Wikipedia)

Municipal House (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_House) is an Art Nouveau palace built in the early 20th century. Those of you who have been to Prague already know this, but it's important to know that this city is one of the great centers for Art Nouveau architecture and art.

Prague is the home of Alphonse Mucha (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha), one of the best-known artists of this period. But I think Prague's Art Nouveau places may not be as well known as some of the other centers for this movement, perhaps because it came late to the movement (or so I think; pure conjecture on my part). Be that as it may, Municipal House was a total surprise to us. We got there before time for our dinner reservation, so we explored the building, finding astonishing and perfect (and perfectly maintained) beauty around every corner and along every stairway. My photos don't do this building justice, but here are some of the sights we saw.

The lady beetle was a popular topic

Banquet hall

There were many of these tile "paintings" throughout the building

Every part of the structure had its design

The other restaurant

"Our" restaurant's entry was quite understated...

...until you stepped through the door

When we arrived, it was clear we hadn't needed to make reservations; we were alone in the restaurant for some time before others came in. That was fine; we got all the attention of the servers and could wander the room examining the decor. I was so reminded of the Mackintosh-designed Willow Tea Room in Glasgow!

Dinner was fabulous; one of the best of our trip, although now I can't remember what I had. Everything was perfectly prepared and presented. I did take pictures of our desserts, which were as tasty as they were works of art:

Sated gastronomically, we left the restaurant and headed toward Smetana Hall.

We asked an usher we saw to direct us to the restroom. He did so, and then proposed that he take a picture of the three of us:

On to the hall:

Prague coat of arms

Image from the program

Following the concert, which was performed for a small but appreciative audience, we left to find that it was still light outside, so we said farewell to the Municipal House...

... and walked to the nearby Old Town Square, where the Old Town Hall had an unusual and beautiful animated clock that we wanted to see when the hour struck. More beautiful buildings:

And finally, the hour came and the clock performed:

Our final, lasting image of a special evening:

We walked back to our hotel, discovering along the way that the night before, when we were desperately looking for something to eat, we were no more than two blocks from this square (and might very well have found something besides KFC to satisfy our hunger pangs).

At Botel Matylda, we stopped at the restaurant deck and had a drink beside the water--a perfect ending to a special day.

But wait--there's more! The next day holds more wonderful Prague surprises!