<div>Obecní dům se přes úvodní vášně stal důležitou pražskou stavbou</div> <div>The Municipal House, despite the initial passions, became an important Prague building</div>

Prague - The Prague Municipal House has become a natural part of the city center over the century since its opening. However, when the magnificent building, which combines the style of French Baroque with Art Nouveau decorations, was inaugurated on November 22, 1912, it sparked disputes not only among the residents of Prague but also within the architectural community itself. The passions eventually subsided, and the Representative House of the Capital City of Prague, as the building was then called, has been fulfilling the role of one of the cultural centers of the Czech metropolis for 100 years.
In addition to the Smetana Hall, still one of the best concert halls in Prague, which boasts the third-largest organ in Austria-Hungary, residents of Prague and its visitors could also visit a French restaurant or a Viennese café. The entire house was conceived as a center of Czech cultural life, a counterbalance to the German House - now the Slavonic House - on Na Příkopech Street. The importance of the building is also attested by the selection of artists who contributed to its interior decoration.
The decoration was the work of such giants of Czech culture as Alfons Mucha, Mikoláš Aleš, Max Švabinský, František Ženíšek, and Josef Václav Myslbek. At the time when the Municipal House opened after seven years of construction, however, Art Nouveau was somewhat out of fashion, and the younger generation, embracing modernism, regarded it with disdain. The monthly magazine for architecture and artistic crafts, Styl, published by the Mánes Association of Fine Artists, even established a special section dedicated solely to the criticism of the Municipal House.
The unfavorable reception of the building was not changed by the fact that the last interiors being completed, namely the café and restaurant, were inspired by the work of Otto Wagner, considered the guru of Viennese modernism. At the very beginning of the 20th century, when a new representative building was being decided next to the Powder Gate, on the contrary, the young generation promoted Art Nouveau and perceived it as a new impulse and a breath of fresh architectural air into the stagnant waters of Czech provincialism.
The decision-making of the councilors about the new Prague landmark was not easy. The first idea came in 1901 from the City Society, and two years later a competition was held, from which the proposal of relatively young creators Alois Dryák and Tomáš Amen emerged as the best. Especially the former, the author of the Europe and Meran hotels on Wenceslas Square, was strongly influenced by Art Nouveau, which was advocated by his teacher from the Arts and Crafts School, Friedrich Ohmann, in Prague. The councilors, however, did not like the winning project very much.
Eventually, they approached a pair of renowned architects, Antonín Balšánek (who was responsible for today’s Legi Bridge and the Museum of the Capital City of Prague) and Osvald Polívka (among other things, the author of the municipal savings bank building on Rytířská Street). Balšánek and Polívka, known until then for their historicizing designs, also found pleasure in Art Nouveau. The older Polívka took the lead, while Antonín Balšánek, according to architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš, brought elements of historicism into their joint work.
The location in the city center that the Prague councilors chose for the representative house was, after all, steeped in history. The King’s Court, the monarch's residence, built by Václav IV at the end of the 14th century and where the young Ladislav Pohrobek later died, once stood here. After the Battle of White Mountain, the archbishop’s seminary settled in the house, which ultimately served as barracks and the headquarters of the cadet school. However, the municipality had the complex of significant historical buildings demolished without hesitation between 1902 and 1904.
The parcel of 14,000 square meters became the ideal site for a building that was meant to represent the capital city of the kingdom and support Czech social life. However, the Municipal House was not born easily - the construction dragged on, the budget increased, and the relationships between its architects deteriorated over time to the point that they could only communicate in writing. The first parts of the Municipal House were put into operation as early as 1909, and three years later, the Representative House of the Capital City of Prague was opened.
The cost came to six million crowns, double the originally contemplated amount. Shortly after its opening, the Municipal House witnessed historic events - the republic was proclaimed from its balcony in October 1918, and the first Czechoslovak parliament convened there. In the following decades, the house reliably served, but eventually, it began to show the wear of time and neglected maintenance. The former glory was ultimately restored to the Municipal House by a demanding and meticulous reconstruction from 1994 to 1997.