Charles Square, one of three central squares of Prague New Town, is not only the biggest one in historical Prague, but also one of the biggest in Europe. It spreads in the area of 80 550 m2. The square got its present name as late as in 1848. It was named Charles Square in the honour of its founder on the occasion of five-hundredth anniversary of New Town foundation. Dominant feature of northern part of the square is indisputably the building of New Town Hall with its high corner turret, where even a chapel has survived. In course of time it underwent several reconstructions, nevertheless in the ground floor there is an original gothic double-nave hall with rib-groined vaults on two mighty cylindrical pillars. After unification of four Prague historical towns in 1784, the New Town Hall lost its political sense. There used to be a court, which even delivered capital verdicts, and also a prison in part of the object. During the tourist season the New Town Hall is open to the public, including the turret with balcony and even the reconstructed flat of former tower master. In the northern part there is a pseudo-classical three-winged building of the Municipal Court joining the town hall; the building was constructed in 1901–1903, according to design by architect E. Foerster, by builder A. Wertmüller. In the south from town hall’s turret there is corner Salmovský palace no. 671 which deserves noticing, not only for its well-preserved Renaissance portal from 1585, but also for the fact that substantial baroque sculptor Matyáš Bernard Braun had had his atelier there and he died there in 1738. In the beginning of this century the park area in front of the New Town Hall waited for large reconstruction. There stand a fountain with baroque column and top sculpture of St. Joseph by sculptor Matouš Václav Jäckel and memorial to poet Vítězslav Hálek by Bohumil Schnirch from 1881.
