Rudolfinum, Prague

Rudolfinum is the grand cultural building beside Jan Palach Square and the Vltava, home to the Czech Philharmonic and Galerie Rudolfinum. Its Neo-Renaissance design revives the formal grandeur of the Renaissance, and Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz created it. The building takes its name from Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria.

Notice the sculpted figures set along the attic: there are thirty-two in all, with musicians on the southern side and visual artists on the northern side. Inside, Dvořák Hall is among Europe’s oldest concert halls. Antonín Dvořák conducted the Czech Philharmonic here for its inaugural concert in eighteen ninety-six.

The building also had an unexpected political chapter: it housed Czechoslovakia’s Chamber of Deputies between nineteen nineteen and nineteen thirty-nine. Music, art, and public life have all passed through these monumental rooms.