DANCING HOUSE, Dancing House

Hi, my name’s Marcy, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the wonders of the world: the “Dancing House”, a surprising masterpiece of contemporary architecture in the heart of Prague.

The “house” is in the New Town, a district with Art Nouveau buildings (or Secese, as the movement is known here), featuring a continuous variety of solutions and decorations, in keeping with Prague’s tradition as a city that welcomes innovation in architecture and town planning.

Among the most surprising contemporary buildings, located alongside the river at the Jiraskuv Bridge, is the “Dancing House”, designed by the Czech architect Vlado Milunic, and the Canadian Frank O. Gehry for an insurance company.

Built in 1996, the “Dancing House” initially met with controversy and puzzlement, but soon became one of the city’s best-known landmarks. The building is composed of two completely different sections, bound together in a sort of embrace, as if in an impassioned dance. This surprising effect explains the nickname chosen for it by Frank O. Gehry: “Fred and Ginger”, after the famous dancing duo of American musicals, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers....