
Bedřich Smetana Museum
Riverside neo-Renaissance water station turned biographical museum, its walls covered in sgraffito by leading Czech painters.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Bedrich Smetana Museum in Prague tells the story behind the small bone displayed inside, part of the composer's inner ear, and how Smetana wrote the symphonic cycle Ma vlast, including its famous Vltava movement tracing the river outside these windows, after he had already gone completely deaf. It traces his hearing loss from his late forties onward, alongside the building's own past as a nineteenth-century water station decorated with sgraffito by leading Czech painters. Stand by the window overlooking the river as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Žofín Palace
Neo-Renaissance riverside hall on a Vltava island, host to nineteenth-century premieres by Smetana and Wagner.
Antonín Dvořák Museum
Baroque summer villa turned composer's memorial, filled with his desk, piano and personal effects.
Vinohradská vodárna
Neo-Renaissance pumping tower with angel-topped corner clocks, once gravity-feeding a district's water supply.
Rudolfinum
Neo-Renaissance concert hall and gallery on the riverbank, home to the Czech Philharmonic since nineteen forty-six.
The Estates Theatre
Neoclassical eighteenth-century theatre where Mozart himself conducted an opera's world premiere.
Lobkowicz Palace
Only privately owned palace inside Prague Castle, with Beethoven manuscripts and a noble family's art collection.