Estates Theatre

On October 29, 1787, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stood in this theatre and conducted the world premiere of "Don Giovanni." He had written the overture the night before — the ink was barely dry, and the orchestra was sight-reading — but the audience erupted. Prague loved Mozart in a way that Vienna never quite did, and he loved Prague right back, famously declaring: "My Praguers understand me."

The Estates Theatre is one of the few surviving 18th-century theatres in Europe where you can still attend performances in the original building. Built in 1783 by Count Nostitz, it was designed in the Neoclassical style and originally called the Nostitz Theatre. The pale green and cream interior has been meticulously maintained — sit in the balcony and you're seeing roughly what Mozart's audience saw, minus the powdered wigs.

Mozart's connection to the building goes deeper than Don Giovanni. His "La Clemenza di Tito" also premiered here in 1791, commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. And when Milos Forman filmed "Amadeus" in 1984, he chose this theatre for the opera scenes — it was the only building in the world that looked exactly as it would have in Mozart's time, because it essentially was.

The building also played a role in Czech national awakening. On December 21, 1834, the first Czech-language opera performance took place here — Frantisek Skroup's "Fidlovacka," which contained the melody that would later become the Czech national anthem. A theatre that gave the world Don Giovanni and a national anthem isn't doing badly for a building built by a count.