Prague-Hradčany 1/Hradčanské náměstí 1: The castle
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1/15, Photo: AT Prague-Hradčany 1/Hradčanské náměstí 1: The castle > next number < |
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The number 1 Pursuant to an Imperial decree, signed by Maria Theresia herself and issued 8 March, 1770, house numbering was introduced throughout the Bohemian and Austrian lands of the Habsburg Monarchy. This measure ran parallel with the so-called "conscription of souls", the enumeration of both the male and female population whose main purpose was to identify the number of men fit for military service ahead of the implementation of a new recruitment system. Subsequently, commissions specially set up for that purpose travelled towns, market towns and villages taking surveys of the denizens and numbering their houses. Houses were numbered in terms of entire towns or villages with number 1, as a rule, being assigned to the building situated next to the entrance of the respective location. In Prague, however, the building allocated number 1 was the Imperial Castle located within the Hradčany district, while in Vienna it was the Hofburg Palace. As for all other houses, numbers were assigned in arithmetical order. Thus, by the order of numbers one could trace back the way the commissioners followed. References; see also Archives: The number 1 Gallery of House Numbers: Exhibition |