There is no other European city in which you can find so many nice-looking house signs as in Prague. Their history goes back to the 14th century when the orientation in the medieval Prague quarters (very extensive in this time) - was continually more and more difficult. At the beginning the house signs appeared on the well-built patrician houses in the market center, later on these symbols decorated pracically all objects on the markets and main routes. Originally the house signs marked not only buldings but also their inhabitants and as a matter of fact they replaced surname. In the medieval documents appeared names for example John by the Bell or Jeshek by the White Bear. Sometimes house signs has been changed into ancestry name. The house signs were placed above entrance portals, at the corners but also at the will on the facades