The Týnská Street is one of the narrowest streets in the Old Town, it runs along the Church of Our Lady before Týn and passes the Prague's Ungelt. It´s only from this street that you´ll be able to admire the Gothic portal of The Church of Our Lady before Týn with its rich decorations from the end of the 14th century.
The oldest name of the area between the churches of Virgin Mary before Týn is Týn or Týn Yard. The word týn means an enclosure, a fenced area, the former word otýniti used to mean to enclose. It originated from the Celtic word dunum - a hillfort, a fenced area, a fence; from Germanic tuna, German Zaun, English town. It was a fenced merchant yard, which according to archaeological research from the 1980s-90s originated in the 12th century. Older literature names the 10th century, when the place was supposedly inhabited by Ibrahim ibn Jakob, the author of the first report about the town. Back then, the merchant yard used to be a real stronghold, separated from the rest of the town by a moat and a wall. Its purpose was to protect the merchants and their merchandise, there were warehouses for the merchandise, horse stables, accommodation for the merchants, one of the oldest hospitals in Prague, as well as a small church of Virgin Mary in place above which today’s Týn Temple is rising. There were thousands of merchant carriages from Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Venetia, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Armenia, Turkey and Arabia, bringing enormous amounts of goods, stated in the merchant yard’s registers: metals and minerals (gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, amber, nitre, salt, sulphur), tools, yarn and linen, wool and silk fabrics, furs, glassware, rugs, live stock, butter, suet, fish oil, oil, colours, waxes, paper, books, feathers, wool, sugar, and more; especially the kitchen utensils and delicacies, southern fruits, beverages were abundant. Huge amounts of fish were surprising, both stream fish and dried and smoked sea fish. Everyone who passed the merchant yard’s threshold enjoyed the king’s full protection, for which it was necessary to pay a fee.
Protection fee gradually developed into compulsory toll for goods imported to Prague or passing through Prague, and later also for any goods imported anywhere in Bohemia. As early as in the 14th century, the toll used to be named by an old Germanic word ungelt, which eventually gave the name to the entire merchant yard. There was a house in which the merchandise was weighed and measured and the toll was calculated. Upon entry, everyone had to hand in their weapons at the gate to the ungelt manager, who also decided on eventual disputes. The evenings used to be merry here, as the merchants drank on their businesses and told stories from lands far away. Therefore also the name Merry Yard (Laeta curia) is known.
Ungelt experienced greatest prosperity in the time of Charles IV and Václav IV. The merchants were very happy here, many of them settled here for good. The Prague customs privilege lost its meaning for the Czechs at the time of the Hussite wars, and even later on, Prague failed to reach its business significance, only to lose it completely in the mid-16th century. The toll house at Ungelt then only served to the Prague trade, and it was first transferred to Haštalská street in 1774, and later to the toll house opposite the Powder Gate in 1810. In the beginning of the 20th century, poor people of the town began to move in to Ungelt, and after World War II, there was a mix of warehouses, workshops, offices and flats of the lowest category here. In 1978, identification archaeological research started here, the yard’s actual reconstruction began in 1981. After the reconstruction, Ungelt was opened for public on the 18th December 1996.
The author this painting is Jaroslav Šetelík. You can find this painting in book 'Praha' (
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Jaroslav Šetelík (
visit link) , baptized Jaroslav Jan (10 August 1881 in Tábor - 12 December 1955 in Prague), was a Czech academic painter and landscape painter.
The subjects of his paintings, mostly watercolours, were sceneries from Prague, Kutná Hora, Louny, Domažnice, etc. He also visited the High Tatras several times. He also worked on large paintings, painting mostly the city of Prague. Yugoslavia, Egypt, etc.