The year 1212 has become famous in Czech history not only for the Golden Bull of Sicily, which gave Czech rulers the highest sovereignty, but also for another, not less important event. It is the year of the the first Prague magistrate.
Market Magistrate
The Market Magistrate Blažej, is thought to be the first magistrate in the area of the arising Old Town. He was appointed by the King and he ruled in the matters of the marketplace. Prague at that time was already a business crossroads and the market, located in Ungelt, certainly needed a manager and a supervisor. With a little bit of exaggeration one can say that the Trade Licence Department of the City of Prague has its roots in the 13th century.
It started with indulgences
Two hundred years later, in 1412, Prague was stirred with passions. Pope indulgences sellers arrived in Prague. It needs to be said that the money from this seemingly virtuous action went towards a war lead by Pope John XXIII not against the pagans but against the King of Naples, Louis II of Anjou. Praguers were strongly against such a thing and there was a public outcry. Jan Hus preached against them. Three journeymen were executed during the riots. The rest of the story has been told through films titled Jan Hus, Jan Žižka and Jan Roháč of Dubá.
Beer office
In 1512, Bohemia was ruled by Ladislaus Jagiellon. It was a relatively peaceful time so the year 1512 went down in the history of Prague as the year of the new Beer Brewing Office. There were over fifty people in Prague who had the right to brew beer. The office fell under the City Council. Nowadays you would not be able to find any such type of an office.
Death of the Emperor
Prague mourns and rightly so. On 20th January 1612 emperor Rudolph of Habsburg died. This fact forecast nothing good for Prague. The centre of European education and culture gradually becomes a provincial city of the Habsburg Monarchy. A war, which will ravage Europe for thirty years, looms on the horizon.
First taxi services in Prague
One hundred years later, Prague lived a peaceful life. The year 1712 could be called the year when Prague taxi service came to life. That year, Jan Ferdinand X. Fachner applied to the emperor to grant him the privilege to operate the first public transport stretcher. The permission was granted as early as in 1718 (!). There were 26 stretchers throughout Prague in five ranks. The fare depended on the number of steps. Later on, stretcher transportation was run by the physician and physicist Josef Vignet. In 1788, stretcher transportation was declared a free trade. Soon after, however, came fiacres. Proposal for their introduction came in 1781 and they were permitted eight years later. As for stretchers, they lasted until the 19th century. However, Prague was not the first town to introduce stretchers. In this respect the first place goes to Brno, where the stretcher transportation had been in operation from 1708 by the city surgeon Andreas Eberhard Girod until his death.
Terezka and Christmas tree
Although Napoleon’s troops were still present in Europe, Prague was peaceful. Sculptor Václav Prachner sculpted the statue of Terezka (Little Theresa), an allegory of the Vltava. Its copy is still on the little fountain in Mariánské Square. The five stars on Terezka’s hand are the symbol of St. John of Nepomuk, who died in the Vltava. The number of stars corresponds to the Latin Tacet (silent). An important event for Bohemia happened at the end of the year 1812 in Libeň, where in the now demolished Šilboch summer house (between Bulovka and Kundratka) the intendant of the Estates Theatre, Jan Karel Liebich, introduced a novelty from Germany – a Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was suspended upside down, however, Czechs put it back on its trunk.
Crazy twentieth century
With the arrival of the 20th century, Prague became an European metropolis. The year 1912 was an interesting year in which the Koruna Palace was built, as well as the cubist House of the Black Madonna. A young professor of physics, Albert Einstein, worked at the University and in the House of the People, certain comrade Lenin plotted at the secret conference of the Bolshevics.
Year of memorials
It is also the year of memoriam – the year of the statue of Mácha in Petřín and of the St. Wenceslas sculpture in Wenceslas Square. It took, however, twenty years until the memorial received its last statue. The author of both is J. V. Myslbek, who had started working on St. Wenceslas in 1887.
Sokol and film
The year 1912 also saw the 6th Sokol Festival and the first Festival of the Association of the Slavic Sokol. One of the first Czech film companies, ASUM, was founded by the architect Max Urban and his wife, actress Andula Sedláčková. By the way, Max Urban is also know as the designer of the Barrandov Studio and Barrandov Terraces for Václav M. Havel.
Time of Cubism
Thanks to the architects Janák and Gočár, artistic workshops were set up in Valentýnská Street were various unique objects were created, mostly cubist furniture, which is still very much sought after in auction houses.
