The story of this place
During the 19th-century national revival, Czechs living under Austrian rule funded a theatre of their own entirely by public subscription, with even the poorest donating; its foundation stones came from symbolic mountains across the Czech lands. It opened in June 1881 with Smetana's opera Libuše — then burned catastrophically that August when workmen's negligence sparked a blaze. Rather than despair, the nation raised a second fortune in just six weeks, and the theatre reopened in 1883, more splendid than before. Its gilded roof and the motto 'Národ sobě' — 'The Nation to Itself' — over the stage made it a symbol of Czech identity. It remains the country's foremost opera and drama house.