Industrial Palace & Křižík Fountain: The Exhibition That Lit Up Prague
Why is it significant?
Stand in front of the great palace of iron and glass, its tall central tower rising over the exhibition grounds, its wings stretching out like arms. In 1891 this was the stage on which a small nation, still without a state of its own, showed the world what it could do.
Key Facts
| Place | Industrial Palace & Křižík Fountain: The Exhibition That Lit Up Prague |
|---|---|
| Address | Výstaviště 67, 170 00 Praha 7, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.10700, 14.42970 |
| Part of Walk | Letná & Holešovice: Prague's Hidden North Bank, from Stalin's Ghost to the Royal Game Park |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in front of the great palace of iron and glass, its tall central tower rising over the exhibition grounds, its wings stretching out like arms. In 1891 this was the stage on which a small nation, still without a state of its own, showed the world what it could do.
The Jubilee Exhibition of 1891 marked a hundred years since an industrial exhibition held in Prague in 1791. Most German-speaking industrialists of Bohemia boycotted it, so it turned into a great Czech show of confidence. Millions of visitors came. The same summer gave Prague the Petřín lookout tower, the Petřín funicular, and the cast-iron pavilion you saw at the start of this walk.
The star of the exhibition was an engineer called František Křižík, sometimes called the Czech Edison. His improved arc lamp had already won a gold medal at the electrical exhibition in Paris in 1881. For 1891 he built Prague's first electric tram, which ran from Letná to these grounds, and behind the palace, a fountain that danced with coloured electric light, an unheard-of marvel for people who still read by gaslight.
The palace has had its troubles. In October 2008 a fire destroyed its left wing, and the twisted iron frame stood as a wreck for years. Its rebuilding has been a long, slow affair, and the palace remains one of the great repair projects of the city.
Walk round behind it to see Křižík's fountain, restored for its centenary in 1991, when it was given a new life of evening shows of water, colour and music. On summer nights thousands of jets rise and fall to the music, and for a moment the grounds feel like 1891 again. From the fountain, take the path west, out of the exhibition grounds, under the old trees of Stromovka.