Long before the people of Prague identified their houses with numbers, they marked their dwellings by using so-called house symbols, whose imagery is usually linked in some way or another to the history of the house itself, or to the trade that was practiced within its walls (like bells, cans, rings, goblets, keys, etc.).

The house symbols (animals especially lions and lambs, donkeys and bears, carps and snakes, futhermore candles, shoes, violins, wheels, hearts, angels, stars, grapes, horseshoes and many others) were modeled in plaster, chiseled in stone, painted on the facade or forged in iron. Accordingly, the buildings were given such melodious names as “At the Blue Snake” or “At the Golden Swan”.

Along the Royal Path, in Celetna Lane, or up steep Nerudova Lane in the Lesser Town, many of these small works of art have been lovingly preserved and survive into our day.

It is well worth raising your head and looking out for them!

Distance from Boutique hotel Seven Days to Celetná street: 17 min by walk through the Wenceslas Square, see the map.

Prague house symbols