The Charles Street is snaking through the Old-Town estates. It is running from the Square of the Knight of the Cross, along Clementinum and Italian Chapel (Vlašská kaple), across Husova Street and after two sharp curves it is ending in the Small Square. Basically, it is very narrow along all the way and sometimes it hardly admit large tourist groups. The only exception is the space among houses At the Gold Snake no. 181, At the Blue Pike no. 180 and At the Gold Well no. 175. Furthermore, from here you may enter Seminárská Street or Liliová Street or to enter the Clementinum courtyard through side entrance.
Gold Snake house came into Prague history as it was most probably the first Prague cafe, where delicious drink, which had been unknown in Prague, coffee, was served. It happened in 1714. Blue Pike house was the first as well. It entered the modern Prague history as the first permanent cinema was located there. It was established and owned by Dismas Šlambor, who was known with his pseudonym Viktor Ponrepo (1858-1926) later on. The first ceremonious movie, a silent film of course, was played there on 15th September 1907.
Two-window and three-storied frontage of the Gold Well House attract attention the most. Beautiful stucco decoration appeared there at the beginning of the 18th century. It was made by sculptor Jan Oldrich Mayer. At the top, on the frontage of the house, there is placed a laying figure of St Rosalie, embraced with roses. Next to the windows on the third floor there are two Jesuit saints, the founder of the Society of Jesus Order, St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francisco Xavier. In the lower floor there are figures of two Czech saints St Wenceslas and St Jan Nepomucký. On the sides of the windows in the first floor, the artist represented St Sebastian and St Roch. Both of them have been worshipped as patrons against plague epidemic. Figure of St Roch is presented very dramatically to a viewer. He rises up clothes with his left hand so that you can see an ulcer on his thigh, which had been caused by a bubo. A faithful dog, which helped his miraculous recovery, is sitting at his feet.
The author of this painting is Václav Jansa. You can find this painting in book 'Starou Prahou Václava Jansy' (
visit link) .
Vaclav Jansa (October 22, 1859 Slatinice - June 29, 1913 Cernošice) (
visit link) Czech landscape artist and illustrator, best known for these views, originally painted in water-colour.
Jansa was apprenticed to buyers, but later he devoted himself to his hobby of drawing and painting. Vaclav Jansa traveled a lot and took to painting landscapes. He painted mostly southern Bohemia and Giant Mountains. Since 1893 was redeveloped historic districts of Prague, Prague ghetto and parts of the Old and New Town. In this time Jansa painted cca 150 colored watercolors documenting disappearing part of the city.
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Dum U Zlaté studne, dríve též U pul zlatého kola tvorí dominantu Karlovy ulice pri príchodu smerem od Karlova mostu na Staré Mesto. Dum dodržuje stredovekou ulicní cáru a tato skutecnost spolu s nárožním charakterem domu i s jeho dlouhou historií zpusobují nepravidelnou dispozici a zajímavé clenení. Objekt c.p. 175/1 se rozkládá na míste puvodního románského dvorce a pozdeji byl goticky prestavován. Jeho soucasná podoba je v základe renesancní z pocátku 17. století v pozdne barokní a klasicistní úprave. Název domu se údajne odvozuje z povesti o zlatém pokladu ukrytém ve zdejší studni. Barokní štuková výzdoba na prucelní fasáde muže být dílem Jana Oldricha Mayera z pocátku 17. století. Vidíme zde sedm reliéfních vyobrazení svetcu sv. Václava, sv. Jana Nepomuckého, sv. Šebestiána, sv. Rocha, sv. Ignáce, sv. Františeka Xaverského (nebo Karla Boromejského) a ležící sv. Rosalie. Vlevo roh jižního traktu areálu Klementina. Vpravo domy v ulici Karlove: c.p. 179/1, 178/1 a v pruhledu Kokorovský palác c.p. 223/1, puvodne gotický, vícekrát prestavený, ve vrcholne barokní podobe z doby po roce 1725.