The Moors guard the entrance of the very Baroque Morzin Palace at Nerudova 5 and were sculpted by the artist Ferdinand Brokof. Prague has no shortage of hefty, detailed, muscled men adorning the doorways of the city’s palaces, but The Moors are unique, in that they are Moors, quite exotic (at the time they were sculpted), and that they are not sculptures of Bohemian men and women like those that adorn the doorways and windows of Prague.
Originally there had been four buildings on this site and the design that was completed in 1670 included the original floor plans of all four buildings that made the one large palace. The Moors appeared when the palace itself was redesigned forty-three years later in 1713 – 14 by the architect Giovanni Santini-Aichl for Count Morzin.
On the front of the building, besides The Moors, you will find the Night and Day allegory, the four statues on the cornice of the roof representing The Four Seasons and also the baroque iron balcony held up by The Two Moors.
The Morzin Palace now houses the Romanian Embassy. The building belongs to the Czech architectural patrimony and the elements of the façade are protected by UNESCO.
Trivia: It is said that Antonio Vivaldi was a friend of Count Morzin and it was the statues of The Four Seasons on the facade of the palace that inspired Vivaldi’s most famous work.
More Trivia: Count Morzin is remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn as his music director. The first few of Haydn’s approximately 106 symphonies were written for the Count.
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Tags: architecture, daily photo, moor, nerudova, prague, sculpture
