Mona Lisa House, Art Nouveau cultural monument in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
Mona Lisa House is a four-storey corner building at the corner of Karla Čapka Street and Jan Palach Embankment, with a residential mansard and cellars. Its late Art Nouveau facade, mirrored with the neighbouring Am Lido house, has a three-axis semicircular bay on the corner topped by a round turret with three windows and a bell-shaped roof. Stucco female heads, stylised flowers and bands of lily of the valley decorate the surface.
Josef Waldert, Karlovy Vary's city builder, erected Mona Lisa House in 1911–1912 on what was then Empress Elisabeth Embankment, now Jan Palach Embankment. He built it under his own management, probably also designing it, and completed it in July 1912 as a rental apartment building. It was declared a cultural monument on 9 April 2001.
The house is named after a stucco female head on the corner bay window, a motif compared to Leonardo's Mona Lisa. The paired house next door, Am Lido, has a mirrored facade, and both were rental apartment buildings rather than spa guesthouses.
The building is located in an area surrounded by other Art Nouveau structures and sits within walking distance of the old town center. Visitors can view the facade from the street and study the architectural details from the exterior.
Mona Lisa House and its neighbour Am Lido were built by Karlovy Vary city architect Josef Waldert in 1911–1912, and their facades are mirror images of each other. The first to be finished was Mona Lisa House, completed in July 1912.
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