The maze has been standing in Petřín for 130 years. How did it go?
The mirror maze in Petřín. A place where almost every Prague resident has been at least once in their life. Either on a trip with the school or with the family, it is also a fun stop during romantic walks around Petřín. But few people think about how and why the maze actually came into being while wandering.
Exhibition exhibit
The mirror maze was originally built as the pavilion of the Club of Czech Tourists at the Prague Jubilee Exhibition of 1891. The maze was built by Prague master carpenter and builder Matěj Bílek according to the design of architect Antonín Wiehhl. “The maze was located at the Prague Exhibition Center. At that time, the wooden building of the maze stood near the corner of the Industrial Palace. After two years, it was moved to Petřín,” says Zuzana Strnadová, director of the Prague Museum.
According to Strnadová, it was in the front rooms of the original pavilion circular panorama with twenty portholes on 100 alternating stereoscopic (allowing spatial vision, editor’s note) slides of interesting Czech locations. “There was also an exhibition of the club’s tourism and publishing activities and an exhibition of tourist products from Czech companies.”
Hall of laughter and diorama
The building in which the maze is located today looks like a small castle with turrets and crenellations, but in reality it is an imitation of the former Gothic Vyšehrad gate called Špička. Inside we can find 45 mirrors, each weighing equal to a ton. “Thirty mirrors form a path that leads visitors to the hall of laughter, where fifteen more mirrors await. And you are not just any. They are variously concave and convex, so they turn the visitors into chubby balls or, on the contrary, oblongs,” explains the director.
But the maze is not the only thing that can be found in the imitation Arrow. There is also a diorama on displayi.e. a plastic painting depicting the fight between the people of Prague and the Swedes on the Charles Bridge in 1648. The painting, which covers the area of a medium-sized apartment, i.e. about 80 square meters, was created together by brothers Karel and Adolf Liebscher, while Karel is the author of the landscape part and Adolf was in charge of its plot. Vojtěch Bartoněk and Karel Štapfer also helped the brothers. Together they managed to create this work in 50 days. The diorama also shows the appearance of the left bank of the Vltava in the 17th century, which is definitely interesting compared to today, and the entire diorama has recently been completely restored.
Reconstruction
Now the building where the maze is located will also be renovated. “This year we are investing in the repair of monuments. It will be a reconstruction of the skylight above the famous picture of the Liebscher brothers, which has become a favorite part of the maze over time,” said František Cipro, chairman of the PCT board. The company plans to renovate at the beginning of June.
Maze on Petřín, Prague
Author: Martin Pekárek