Jílové u Prahy house No. 21: from a Loreta to a tobacco shop

House No. 21 on Masaryk Square in Jílové u Prahy stands on the site of the monastery's Loreta chapel, and its history features a ruined owner, two auctions and a mayor's office. Today the ground floor houses a shop selling tobacco, stationery and toys, the tourism portal Turistika.cz reports.

From monastery to ramshackle cottage

Two houses once stood here. In 1617–1623 they were replaced by a monastery complex of the Minorites. After it was dissolved in 1785, the complex was split into five houses (Nos. 18–22). House No. 21 is believed to stand where the Loreta of the Virgin Mary was, that is, on a third of the former complex.

This third was bought by Vojtěch Prantl and Matěj Chalašek. Prantl received the Loreta and the empty plot in front of it, facing the square. There he built a small house with a lean-to roof, using the walls of the former monastery church. The windows of the main room looked onto the square, behind it lay a large hallway, and behind that the Loreta itself.

The builder's son, Matěj Prantl, neglected the house just as his father had, and soon everything fell into disrepair. The Loreta became a woodshed. When Jílové became a district town in 1851, the shabby house on the square was an embarrassment, and officials demanded that it be put in order. Prantl had no money.

Auctions and a complaint to the governor

The house was auctioned off to the merchant Josef Leitner, who set about renovating it. But Prantl complained to the imperial-royal governor, Baron Karel Mécsery de Czoor, arguing that the authorities had violated the inviolability of private property. The governor was sensitive to such claims, so the auction was annulled, the house was returned to Prantl, and Leitner was ordered to take away everything he had brought and built there.

Prantl's relief was short-lived. Townspeople persuaded him to buy all that property back from the merchant on “favorable” terms; it was valued at 454 gulden. He had no money and could not meet the payment schedule in the contract. He was taken to court, and the little house went to auction again (the first one took place in 1856). Ironically, on Jan. 7, 1858, Leitner bought the house once more, paying 2,575 gulden together with the materials. The garden behind the house stayed with Prantl, and his daughter later sold it to Josef Lišek from house No. 20.

Leitner built a new house and tore down what was left of the Loreta. He did save two stones with inscriptions about a papal gift to the monastery and about indulgences. They were set into the floor of St. Adalbert's Church in front of the main altar, so that they would recall the town's glorious monastic past.

A mayor, a museum and a shop

Leitner kept the house for about 13 years and in 1872 sold it to Leopold Čihák for 3,050 gulden. Four years later Čihák bought part of Prantl's former garden from house No. 20 so that the owner would have a patch of green. In 1877 he became mayor of Jílové, and the house hosted meetings that could not be held at town hall. A year later he stepped down voluntarily: backroom intrigue in politics was not to his taste. He remained on the town council, to which he had first been elected in 1871.

In 1904 Leopold passed the house to his son Jan Čihák. Jan traded in general goods and spirits, led the local TJ Sokol society as its chairman and looked after the museum collections. On Dec. 11, 1932, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the house: “Leopold Čihák lived and worked here, born Dec. 9, 1832, died Feb. 10, 1915. Founded the town museum, wrote the chronicle of the town of Jílové.”

After February 1948 the private sector was nationalized, and a branch of the consumer cooperative “Bratrství” opened here, which became Jednota in 1953. In the 1950s the house got running water and a reworked roof, and the facade and interiors were renovated later. Quite a few businesses have come and gone on the ground floor; today it is home to a shop selling tobacco, stationery and toys run by Eva and Radek Dupal. The house's story became the subject of Jan Morávek's book “The Madman from the Loreta.”

Around Prague guide on the topic: Olomouc from Prague in a day 2026: trains, Holy Trinity Column, astronomical clock, museums, Christmas markets

Around Prague, based on reporting by turistika.cz