History of the House At the Black Star

House at the Black Star (Small Nostitz House), number 177/1 (Seminarska Street 6, Prague 1 - Old Town) Late Renaissance building from the beginning of the 17th Century
The building, which had already been recorded before 1400, acquired its current Renaissance appearance at around the beginning of the 17th century. Without a doubt, the basic construction of the main building, the eastern wing and the back area date back to the Middle Ages.These areas were not all built at the same time; the back part is newer.
In 1538 the building was divided into two parts; the left part underwent considerable reconstruction in the second half of the 16th Century. In 1622 integrated again and immediately subsequent to that the street side facade and the right rear area were reconstructed.
More recent classicist reconstruction consisted of making a staircase, while the attic behind the Renaissance gable is also of newer origin.
The owners of house number 177/1 (the second opposite the garden of the[Dominican] Cloister of St. Climent) in the Middle Ages (the first third of the 15th century) are recorded in Tomek's Mistopis (Topography). He discovered their names in various urban records, particularly from three volumes of initiated lawsuits (Libri Judiciorum Bannitorum - hereafter LJB) from the years 1351, 1404 and 1413 , and from urban tax collection records (Liber Collectarum) which contain four mentions of the house in relation to tax collection (three from 1429 and one from 1433). In the Liber Collectarum the houses are listed numerically.
In the year 1404 there is mention of a goldsmith (auripercussor, goltslaher) named Friedlin (LJB 1404, fol.15) and in 1417 of a cutler Michal Zweyjahr (LJB 1413, fol. 139): ex opposito orti monasterii S. Clementis domus Michaeli Cweyjar quae fuit Jurglini olim Fridlini goltslaher filii quae transit retro usaje ad domum Swykonis sutoris).
In 1620, on the 19th of May, Marta, wife of Jan Soukup of Grosperk, confessed to owing 500 kop to Matous Kostrauch and gave her home, the House at the Black Star as security.
In 1622, on the 25th of February, the House at the Black Star was bought for 550 Czech kop by Cyril Agricola, the heir of Jan Agricola, an expeditor at the Czech office from Marta Soukupova of Grossperkus.
In 1765 earl Bedrich Nostic-Rieneck (4.10.1728-19.11.1796), patron of a cuirassier regiment and General of Cavalry, later the Emperor's secretary, president of the Royal War-Council and Knight of Golden Fleece, inherited this house from his father Frantisek Vaclav (1697-20.9. 1765) . Apart from owning the Trmice domain, also given to him by his father, in 1773 Bedrich Nostic bought the domains of Predlice, Zd?ar, Libochovany and Zernoseky while in the House at the Black Star the famous Zernoseky wine was purveyed.
The building is proclaimed within Prague cultural preservation and has been listed on the UNESCO world heritage list since 1993.