The White Lion — Czech Art Nouveau and the battlefield of 1866
Hradec Králové ('Queen's Hradec') is a handsome East Bohemian city that reinvented itself as an Art Nouveau showcase in the early 20th century — Jan Kotěra and Josef Gočár gave it a coherent modernist makeover that earned it the sobriquet 'Salon of the Republic' from President Masaryk. The Old Town preserves a remarkable 14th-century cathedral and the White Tower belfry, while the New Town (1910s-1930s) is a coherent planned masterpiece of Czech functionalism. The Battlefield of Königgrätz (1866) nearby — where Prussia defeated Austria in the war that redrew European power — is one of the mos…
Hradec Králové was the royal town of Czech queens from the 14th century — the name means 'Queen's Castle.' It was a prosperous commercial city on the Elbe River and an important Hussite stronghold in the 15th century. The catastrophic Battle of Königgrätz (3 July 1866) was fought on its doorstep — 220,000 Prussian troops defeated 200,000 Austrians in the largest battle in European history until WWI, ending Austrian dominance in Germany and accelerating the formation of modern Germany. The early 20th century transformation into an Art Nouveau/Functionalist model city was one of the most cohere…