House signs of Písek

In the Middle Ages the orietation in the town was based on house names or house signs in various forms. They were painted on wood, on metal sheet or on plaster, sometimes they were stone or wooden sculptures or ironwork. Among motifs there were religious symbols, mythical personages, astronomical objects, animals, things, sometimes even inscriptions. Písek has the extraordinary good fortune that on many facades the house signs have been preserved to this day. The most famous are:

"THE ELEPHANT" - Karlova St. No. 3
The front wall of this corner house is structured with 7
axes. Under the fourth window from the left at level with the cornice there is a bulky bracket decorated with leaves and bearing the symbol of the house - an elephant. The house originally constructed in the Classicist style around 1800 was built into a former moat.

"THE GOLDEN SHIP" - Velké náměstí No. 106
The two-storey house has a remarkable facade in the late Baroque style. A ship, the house symbol, can be found above the first floor level.

"THE WHITE LAMB" - Drlíčov No. 143
This Baroque house was built in the middle of the 18th century. The corridor is vaulted with cross arches. The wing left of the yard has vaults which are square in plan. The cellars have barrel vaults made of bricks. The house symbol of a sitting lamb is located over the semicircular entrance vault.

"THE SILVER DENIERS"- Drlíčov Nr. 153
This two-storey house has an attic with dormer windows. The extension was made in 1940. Under the cornice there are emblems of five South Bohemian towns: Strakonice, Blatná, Písek, Vodňany and Sušice. Above the windows of the first floor there is a panorama of Písek with a map of the inner town and the folk song words "Když jsem já šel tou putimskou branou" (As I was walking through the Putim Gate). Casts of golden ducats coined by the Czech king Charles IV can be seen between the windows of the first floor.

File date: 25.9.2007