Smetana Hall

Beneath the glass dome of Prague's Municipal House, the Smetana Hall opened in 1912 as the ceremonial heart of a building conceived in full Art Nouveau by the architects Antonín Balšánek and Osvald Polívka and decorated by the leading Czech artists of the day. It is the home of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Each 12 May, the anniversary of Smetana's death, the Prague Spring festival opens here with "Má vlast", the cycle he completed as deafness closed around him — a ritual that binds the room to the composer whose name it carries. Concerts are only part of its life; the hall remains the Municipal House's principal ceremonial space, used for occasions of every kind beneath the same mosaics.