The house of the Black Madonna (Dům u Černé matky boží)
This building was the first cubist building in Europe. Everything in the house in connected with cubism – from the permanent exhibition of Czech cubism to special "cubist" cakes in the Grand Cafe Orient.
The building was designed by Josef Gočár between 1911 and 1912 as a multifunctional building with shops on the ground floor and offices, flats and the legendary Orient coffee house with its cubist furniture on the floors above.
Josef Gočár (1880-1945)
It's a real architectural masterpiece with huge Cubist windows and facades broken into multiple planes in order to create an unusual interplay of light and shade. Behind a grille on the first floor is the statue of the Madonna, which gives the building its name. The building is also home to the Czech Cubist Museum with its permanent exhibition on Czech Cubism, which is unique to Bohemia although Cubist painting is common in Europe.
The The Café Grand Orient was open for a mere ten years or so but closed in the 1920’s when cubism fell out of fashion. Renovated and reopened in March 2005, we're happy to have this piece of history back.
The house of the Black Madonna (Dům u Černé matky boží)
Celetná 34, Prague 1
