The Divadlo na Vinohradech theatre is one of the main theatre companies operating in Prague. The building, belonging mostly to the Neo-Renaissance style with Art-nouveau elements, is located in the Prague Conservation Zone of Vinohrady, Žižkov and Vršovice, not far from the City Centre and the National Museum.

The theatre was built between 1905 and 1907, on the initiative of the municipality and according to a project by Alois Čenský. The majestic building on the Peace Square (Náměstí Míru, originally Purkinje’s Square) crowned the boom experienced by the Vinohrady burghers in the latter half of the twentieth century and its scene and productions were to present an artistically a respectable counterpart, even a competition, to the National Theatre.

The allegorical figures rising high above the front façade of the building are the work of the sculptor Milan Havlíček and they represent Bravery (a seraphim holding a sword) and Truth (a seraphim holding a mirror). With their monumental size at almost 7 m high and 36 tons, they are perhaps the largest statues located on a building in the Czech Republic. The winner in the competition for the theatre curtain was Vladimír Županský with his design for a dreamy scene dominated by the figure of a Muse descending among a group of artists in the midst of an imaginary landscape.

The ceiling has been adorned by a painting entitled „Homage to the Art of the Country“ by František Urban, in the two corners above the stage we can admire allegories of Opera and Drama respectively by Antonín Mára. Many other works of art and numerous examples of extraordinary design and craftsmanship have made the theatre building into one of the most important monuments of the Prague Art-Nouveau tradition.

The new theatre was inaugurated on 24 November 1907. The first performance was Jaroslav Vrchlický’s drama Godiva in F. A. Šubert’s direction. Besides the drama ensemble, the theatre was also the home, until 1818, of an opera and operetta ensemble.