The building of the present Masarykovo Station was the first historical building of any railway station in Prague and one of the oldest in Europe. The late-classicism building with its two towers was constructed with a design by Antonín Jüngling (with the possible participation of Peter de Nobile) in 1844-1845 and commemorates the arrival of the very first train in Prague.
This happened on 20th August 1845. The train had two locomotives called Prag and Olmüthz. The vanguard with locomotion called Böhmen carried Jan Perner. For the Czech patriots they had names – Praha, Olomouc and Čechie. The ceremonious train left Olomouc at 6am and after lunch the spectators, who wanted to see for mostly the first time the “steel courser”, started to gather. The railway station was only open for those invited and so the rails in front of the City walls were literally besieged with curious people. A very advantageous view point was at the Vítkov hill. The train arrived around 4:30pm in Prague welcomed by cannonade and the Prague’s bells.
The original railway station consisted of two building in the classicism style. Both, the departure building beside Hybernská St. and the arrival building beside today’s Havlíčkova St., were preserved until today. The space in the middle of these buildings was left opened for the smoke from the locomotive. It was only later, in 1873, when a three- storied building was built on the corner of Hybernska and Havlíčkova Streets with a big restaurant on its ground floor.
Two towers are rising from the roof beside Hybernská St.. Both have three floors and a square floor plan, tall windows and round clock faces situated above them. The towers are crowned by lower pyramidal roofs. The height of the towers is 31.5m out if which 10m is the height of the roof.
