Prague is one of the most beautiful and photographed cities in the world. Rightfully so. Prague Castle, Old Town Hall, Charles Bridge, Dancing House and, from October 2022, the unique Fragment House. The shape of the house resembles a reclining figure supported by three statues in the shape of a hand, a leg and a woman.
The dominating feature of the entire building is the giant statue of Lilith. The 24-metre high and 35-tonne steel colossus, designed by David Černý, the infant terrible of the Czech art scene, stands in the middle of Karlín, Prague's renowned gastro district.
Three statues supporting the house
The three statues that support the house draw attention to the fact that man needs the community of other people for his life, symbolize solidarity and imaginatively depict the cells that make up the human body. The fragment thus pays tribute to the nearby Invalidovna, built in 1737 by the architect Kilian Dientzenhofer, modelled on the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris for war invalids.The three statues weigh a total of 60 tons and are made of stainless steel with a mirror-polished surface. The largest statue of the woman Lilith always turns her head 180° after midnight. Some critics say the work is too sexist. David Černy denies this, saying that the statue symbolizes the first woman to defy the biblical Adam and thus represents female emancipation.
How to get to the Fragment house?
Address: House Fragment, Sokolovská street / Rohanské nábřeží, 186 00 Karlín
Transport connection - Invalidovna station, metro line B, tram no. 3,8,24
David Černý: Rock star of the Czech art scene?
The artist, who is famous for his many artistic provocations and controversies, is described by critics as a rock star of the Czech art scene. He is most famous for his Entropa, which he created for the occasion of the Czech EU Presidency in 2009. The work is a provocative representation of the states of Europe. You can see it at Techmania in Pilsen. In the 1990s, he attracted attention with a sculpture of a Trabant on legs symbolizing the exodus of East Germans, which appeared in Old Town Square in Prague.He caused a big scandal by painting a Soviet T-34 tank pink, which he used to protest against Russia's invasion of Georgia, following the example of the legendary Lady Punk. During the London Olympics, he provoked with the London Booster - a double-decker bus in the shape of an athlete doing push-ups. Other well-known works include his kinetic head of Franz Kafka in front of the Quadrio shopping centre on Prague's Národní třída, and Babies, which adorns the Žižkov TV tower.
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