Široká No. 47

Location:
Široká No. 47

Description of the Building:
A house with late Gothic core which was significantly renovated in the Rennaissance period and the second half of the 18th century. The buiding attracts attention especially by the classical front; the rectangular stone entrance portal with skiving is also worth mentioning.

Architectural and Historical Development:
The house No. 47 belongs to the older buildings on the eastern side of Široká street. The street obtained its present appearance and name in the 18th century; it was scarcely built up till then and several presently detached houses used to represent the back parts of houses in Soukenická street (the area was called "bottom" or "back" street in the 16th and 17th centuries). The house No. 47 is also of Gothic origin - it was separated and changed into a habitable building at the beginning of the 16th century (in connection with a significant reconstruction of the house No. 42 in Soukenická street). The house was gradually spread out, which can be evidenced by the fact that the left aisle is older; several stages of the construction are evidenced by a recess in the front. Between 1753 and 1789 the house was reconstructed into classical style, and the present facade originates from that time. There was some partial work done during the last decades. In 1908 the cellar vaulting was removed and the cellar was later vaulted to transverses; at that time a division wall was included in the ground floor. In 1930 a new ceiling was placed, and three years later a window from the hall to the yard was broken through.

Significant Architectural Features:
Late-Gothic parts of the house construction have been preserved; we can sometimes notice remains of the original layout. The late-Gothic entrance portal and a very valuable joist ceiling on the first floor are especially worth mentioning. The beams rest on supporting pillars along the walls which are decorated by carved plaits.

History of the House Residents:
The first documented owner of the house was an otherwise unknown Štargl in the 1520s. He was followed by a draper Tomáš in the 1540s. Soon after his death in 1549 his widow Anna married Pavel Kaukuš, who is considered to have been a rich burgess. He sold the building in 1590 for a fairly low price of 150 three scores of Meissen groschen to a barrel-maker Kašpar Štraub. In 1621 the house shortly belonged to a maltster Ondřej Walter and from 1625 a carpenter Michal Hegele lived there. In the years 1644 - 1665 the house was owned by a glass-maker Daniel Klaus. Among the other owners there is a personage of a town councillor Florian Alois Hiernig (1665 - 1669), who was followed by a stone-mason Matyáš Zeberer. From 1676 to the middle of the 18th century the house owners - Jiří Philipona and Vojtěch Riedl - a ran tailor´s trade there. In 1908 a machine laundry was established on the ground floor.

Stories And Other Interesting Information:
It is said that there are some strange sounds heard from the loft at about midnight, as if someone were limping back and forth. Even clear sounds of clacking of a wooden leg on the floor cold be heard. There is a legend that sometime after the Thirty Years´ War a crippled soldier knocked on the door and asked for food and bed. He got a good dinner and fell asleep in an attic chamber. Unfortunately, he felt unwell during the night and died without help. His soul did not find peace in eternity and sometimes wanders around the place of its death. His steps followed by a clear clacking of the wooden leg on the floor can be heard.

Present Use:
Wafer shop, souvenir shop