Rumpálův dům, Renaissance house at Velké náměstí, Prachatice, Czech Republic

Rumpálův dům is a one-storey house on the east side of Velké náměstí in Prachatice, with a three-axis front and a single-axis side. Its ground floor has an arcade of three arches on four stone pillars, and the whole square-facing facade is covered with red-brown figural and ornamental sgraffito. The main entrance is a Gothic pointed portal of Prachatice diorite, and a passage links the square with Křišťanova Street.

The house was built around 1544 as a late Gothic structure, after Peter V. of Rosenberg authorised a new block of houses on the eastern side of the square in 1539. It was rebuilt in Renaissance style between 1560 and 1580, when the sgraffito facade was created under the wealthy salt merchant Šebestián Rumpál. In 1671 the town bought it for 1,400 guilders and set up a municipal brewery, which operated until the 19th century.

The house takes its name from the Rumpal family, who made their fortune in the salt trade and used the building to show their standing in town. Visitors today can still read that ambition in the painted facade and the arcade facing the square.

The house stands on the east side of the main square in Prachatice and is easy to see from across the open space. The ground floor arcades can be observed directly from the square without entering the building.

The sgraffito was made between 1570 and 1580, probably after 1571, when the house was rebuilt under the salt merchant Šebestián Rumpál. Its red-brown figures were coloured and shaded in blue-grey, with incised lines picked out in red, following the Roman mannerist style all'antica. On the side facade a jester with a tankard recalls the brewery already documented in the house.