Rudolfinum

This guide to the Rudolfinum in Prague opens with Nazi soldiers combing the concert hall's rooftop statues in 1941, under orders from Reinhard Heydrich, hunting for a hidden Jewish composer among the carved musicians. It traces the building's rise in the 1870s and 80s under architects Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz, its opening with Beethoven's music in 1885, and its decades as home to the Czech Philharmonic and Dvořák himself. Between the world wars, these same rooms hosted elected deputies debating a young republic's fate.