Shadows of a Forgotten World

Before Empress Maria Theresa introduced identifying numbers to Prague in 1770, houses were known and located by allegorical symbols. Many of them originally had alchemical significance. The Two Suns The Golden Key Castle goldsmiths lived in this house in the 17th century They paid fees to the city and thus were entitled to advertise their wares  The Red Lamb  The Three Fiddles A family of violin makers lived in this house in the early 18th century The Golden Wheel This alchemic symbols represents a stage in the magnus opus ,  the process by which lead purportedly turned into gold  The White Lion

Medieval ads and signs have survived in and around Lviv’s Rynok Square. Usually these were metal signs or stone carvings located above entrance ways. The emblems marked the locations of guilds, workshops, stores, taverns, etc. Signs during these times used symbols as the general populace was illiterate. Entrances to taverns were marked with lion heads, often with a bunch of grapes in its mouth. Grapes marked the entrances to restaurants. Emblem of a tailor’s workshop on a building on Rynok Square Relief of Like the Evangelist (Patron of painters) – emblem of painter's workshop – located on Krakivska St. Workshops and stores were often marked with metal signs. An iron key marking a locksmith's workshop from the 19th century still survives on a 17th-century building. Some other signs that were used but no longer are found in Lviv are: bundle of hay marking where beer was sold; lion with a lock marking a locksmith’s w...