DK Travel : Prague : History & Culture

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Rudolfinum

The Rudolfinum is home to the Czech Philharmonic. During World War II, the Nazis sought to remove Felix Mendelssohn from the gallery of statues on the roof. They inadvertently plucked Richard Wagner instead.
Sbratření

This bronze statue recalls the Red Army’s liberation of Prague in 1945: a grateful resistance fighter greets a Soviet footsoldier with a bunch of lilac and a, presumably brotherly, kiss. It’s one of the few pro-Soviet monuments still standing in Prague.
Shoenborn Palace

Czechoslovakia’s first ambassador to the United States sold the palace to the US government in 1925. Count Colloredo-Mansfeld owned the palace in the 17th century: having lost a leg in the Thirty Years’ War, he had the stairs reconstructed so he could ride his horse into the building.
Slavín Monument

The burial place of notable Czech cultural figures, students laid flowers in remembrance here on 17 November 1989, before marching into town for the Velvet Revolution.
Slavonic Epic

Art Nouveau master Alfons Mucha celebrates the Czech mythic past in this artwork.
Smetana’s Grave

At the start of each year’s Prague Spring music festival (see Prague Spring International Music Festival), musicians attend a ceremony at composer Bedřich Smetana’s grave.
Smíchov

Today, modern shopping centres and multiplex cinemas have taken over what used to be the city’s main industrial centre. At the heart of the district is Anděl metro station, which still bears traces of its Communist origins – the station was originally named “Moscow” and was decorated with Soviet murals (see Anděl Metro).
Spanish Synagogue

The opulent Moorish interior with its swirling arabesques and stucco decoration gives this late 19th-century synagogue its name. It stands on the site of a building known as the Old School, Prague’s first Jewish house of worship. František Škroup, composer of the Czech national anthem, was the organist here in the mid-19th century.
Spanish Synagogue

The ornate 1880 organ figures in the sacred music concerts held in this opulent synagogue.
St Agnes

St Agnes (1211–82), devout sister of Wenceslas I, built a convent for the order of the Poor Clares (the female counterpart of the Franciscans).