History

The history of the house U Červené lišky (At The Red Fox) dates back to the first half of the 12th century and is full of surprising moments. Let the story take you back many centuries. 

At the Sickles, At the Two Blue Sickles, At the Golden Wolf, At the Red Fox - these are all names of the same house with the address 24/480 Old Town Square. Its Romanesque origins with later Gothic style are clearly visible in the present basement. However, these were originally the ground floor before the Old Market Square (Staroměstské náměstí) was filled with earth as part of a flood prevention measure in the 13th century. 

The house likely owes its current Baroque appearance, including the overall layout, to the French architect and painter Jean Baptiste Mathey. A striking feature was added somewhat later in the form of a statue of John of Nepomuk by the Czech-Austrian sculptor Ignác František Platzer. 

Today, a statue of this famous patron of the Czech lands decorates the main part of the 420 restaurant of Michelin-starred chef Radek Kašpárek. 

Before that, however, it witnessed many other events and transformations. For example, the house gable disappeared from the facade, and the fox was replaced by a relief of the Madonna.

And together with the conservationists, she watched as the current owner, RSJ Investments, restored the building to its original authenticity and historical value. The extensive and challenging renovation of the listed building has removed the legacy of the past and allowed the house U Červené lišky to begin a new era. 

But how did its former owners treat the house and what life stories do its walls bear? From the archives it is possible to piece together several of them. For example, when the house was owned by the furrier and councillor Václav Štraboch, it is said to have been connected by an underground passageway to the town hall. Historical sources also tell us that changes of ownership took place under more or less dramatic circumstances. For one of them his German origin was fatal during the Hussite times, for another (nicknamed Evil Cat) it was the fact that he went mad in his old age, throwing pots into the market square and even firing a cannon at the opposite town hall. A very interesting story began to be written at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the goldsmith Kerlitzký took in a country boy as an apprentice and subsequently gave him the house and his trade. He later enhanced the fame of the house by pioneering the production of gold jewellery made from Czech garnets. And it was this apprentice who was the ancestor of the owners to whom the house was returned after the communist period.

Apart from living, the house U Červené lišky has had many uses over the course of its history. It is not surprising that many traditional crafts have changed here. Apart from the aforementioned goldsmith's shop, there were, for example, furriers and tailors.

Even the butcher shop, located in the basement of the current restaurant, is not here for the first time. Beer, which can still be enjoyed today, was already on tap here at the end of the 19th century. The infamous era then came in the 1960s, when the house was used as the seat of the district committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Fortunately, the planned barracks for the People's Militia did not come to pass, but the building did not escape untoward interventions.

Both when it was owned by the state and when it was reconstructed for the purposes of a Komerční banka offices, a period still remembered by many Prague residents.  

The house U Červené lišky has undergone a long and remarkable evolution since its Romanesque construction. It has witnessed many crucial events in Czech history. At one point it became the most expensive historic house in the country. Now life has returned to it. The social and cultural life of Prague's inhabitants and those who come to admire its beauty from afar.