Lucerna Passage

This passage connects two streets through what was once the boldest building project in the city. Vácslav Havel finished it in 1921 after 14 years of construction. Yes, that Havel. His grandson became the first president of the independent Czech Republic. Lucerna means lantern, and the building lived up to its name. Look around: lantern motifs everywhere, glass skylights flooding the space with light. It was the first shopping arcade of its kind here. One of the first reinforced concrete buildings in the city. The Great Hall inside was meant to be a hockey arena but the dimensions did not work. They built it anyway on a foundation 14 meters deep. Louis Armstrong played here. So did Josephine Baker and Count Basie. Then came the Nazis, then the communists. The state seized it in 1952. The Havel family got it back in 1990. Look up. That is St. Wenceslas riding a dead horse, created by artist David Černý in 1999. The horse hangs upside down, tongue out, suspended by its hooves. Wenceslas sits on its belly. It is a parody of the heroic statue in Wenceslas Square just meters away, where the saint rides a noble steed. Černý will not say what it means, but most read it as commentary on Czech politics. The sculpture is made of polystyrene and was supposed to stay only until constitutional monarchy returned to Czech lands.