In 1826, the Czech artist and librarian Antonin Langweil began work on a multi-year project that lasted 11 years. For a decade, he created an incredibly realistic paper miniature of Prague. Unfortunately, he never “finished” the city: in 1837, Langweil died, having managed to assemble over 2,000 tiny buildings on a scale of 1:480. The area of the toy capital of the Czech Republic is 20 sq. meters.
The model is of historical value, as some of the depicted areas do not really exist for a very long time. From the end of the 19th century to the mid-40s of the 20th century, redevelopment was carried out, as a result of which many buildings were demolished, and new houses appeared in their place. Thus, Langweil's model became the only accurate depiction of the historical center of Prague, which has long since disappeared.
Information about the motives of the artist has not reached us: it is unlikely that he took up the creation of a miniature to document the appearance of the city. Probably, the author looked at his work as a work of art. Langweil designed realistic facades of buildings, decorated the streets with artificial plants, and, for greater authenticity, depicted broken windows and peeling walls in some places.
The artist managed to exhibit the unfinished model in public five times. In 1833, Langweil showed a model at an industrial exhibition held in honor of the arrival in Prague of the last Holy Roman Emperor and the first Emperor of Austria, Franz II. After Langweil's death, his wife offered Ferdinand I, King of Hungary and Bohemia, to purchase an unusual work. The monarch paid for the miniature and donated it to the National Museum in Prague. In 1862, the model was temporarily installed in the city hall. Today it can be seen as part of the permanent exhibition at the Prague City Museum. In the early 2000s, Visual Connection fully digitized the miniature.
