National Theatre cornerstone

JAN 01 1868 · 12:00

The National Theatre seen from the west, period view before the 1881 fire Place: Embankment of the Vltava, beside the Provisional Theatre Figures: František Palacký, historian, laying the first stone · Josef Zítek, architect · 150,000 spectators The cornerstone is quarried from the hill of Říp in central Bohemia. In Cosmas's chronicle, this is where the forefather Čech climbs and surveys the land and tells his people they have arrived. The stone is transported the forty miles to Prague by carriage, escorted by villagers at every stop. On May 16, 1868, it is laid with hammers struck in turn by Palacký, Smetana, Karel Sladkovský, and a sequence of regional patriots, each adding a blow. A hundred and fifty thousand people watch. The population of Prague at the time is around 160,000. Pamphlets and pull-quotes are read out. The architect, Josef Zítek, has won the design competition with a neo-Renaissance scheme drawn from Italian models, golden roof above sandstone walls, Apollo and the Muses on the loggia.