The Oldest House in the Old Town

A smithy stood in the middle of the Coal Market until the nineteenth century — and by legend the very oldest house in the Old Town was built here. Beside it stood a charcoal hut or booth in which the superintendent of the coal market, called the coal magistrate, sold charcoal and pitch; in the sixteenth century he paid the town fourteen threescore Bohemian groschen. Besides this, coal was brought in from the country three times a week.