As you approach the Old Town Square, heading down Celetna, you will be forgiven for missing the Golden Angel that stares down at you while you saunter across the cobbled streets of Prague.
Indeed, many people standing in this spot would be more interested in the better known House of the Black Madonna, without realising what they’re giving their back to.
Above the entrance to No. 29 on Celetna, there is a statue of a golden angel. This winged figure holds a laurel aloft, but it is unclear exactly what the laurel is meant to refer to. In the other hand, the angel holds a horn of plenty, filled with fruit.
The building takes its name from this figure and it has been a hotel for as long as anyone can remember. At one point, it was a coaching inn, later converted to a luxurious hotel for rich visitors to Prague. W. A. Mozart was a guest here when he lived in Prague – rather appropriately too since the theatre where he staged his ‘Don Giovanni’ is just round the corner behind the Fruit Market (Ovocny Trh).
If you look closely at the angel, you will notice that there is more to it than meets the eye; just under the fruit, there is a winged caduceus – a winged staff, sometimes adorned by snakes. It is the staff carried by the Greek God Hermes (known to the Romans as Mercury). Roman statues and images of Mercury have him carrying the caduceus in his left hand and he is known as the ‘messenger of the Gods, guide to the dead, and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars and thieves’
This winged staff (not always depicted with coiled snakes) is used to depict the planet Mercury in astrological documents and represents the metal of the same name. Legend had it that the staff could be used to wake the sleeping, or send those who are awake to sleep. If the staff was used with people who were dying, their death would be a peaceful one; and if applied to the dead, they would return to life.
It’s not clear what would happen if you were dying and happened to be sleeping at the same time. Presumably, Mercury wouldn’t see the funny side of that.
A staff that has the ability to convert one state into another – why is this hidden? Could it be that the statue was placed here at the beginning of the alchemist’s route to symbolically show that a winged guardian is prepared to accompany the traveller, and maybe place the laurel on he who manages to master the secrets of alchemy – the very art of converting matter from one state to another?
(It’s worth noting that the original statue has been replaced with a replica; you can see the original one in the Municipal Museum close to the lost train station of Tesnov. Have you been to see it yet?)