Prague III

Photo: Ella Rozett

The Black Madonna on the
House of the Black Madonna

In the Stare Mesto part of town, on the corner of Celetna and Ovocny Roads, Ovocný trh 19, 110 00 Staré Město. 17th century, 50 cm, wood. 

She is a copy of the Black Madonna of Loreto. All a local tour guide had to say about her was: "She is like an address sign." Indeed, very many of the old houses in Prague bear some kind of image by which they are identified. As the Swiss gave their houses names, so the Czechs gave them images.

At least this Madonna was important enough to be saved when the old house she used to adorn was destroyed and a Cubist house put in its place. Now she graces the Museum of Cubist Art.