43 The Golden Cross House

In the northern part of the square, directly opposite the Teplice chateau, stands a Neoclassical house called “The Golden Cross”. It was built as a hotel in 1809 by the wealthy family of Eduard John, later the mayor of Teplice. Over the years, a whole range of important guests stayed in its thirty rooms. Three of them, however, are remembered far beyond the town. It was here, after the decisive battle of Chlumec and Přestanov in 1813, that the Russian, Austrian and Prussian monarchs met to agree on their next steps against Napoleon.

After Napoleon’s failure in Russia in 1812, Austria and Prussia tried to overturn his rule in Central Europe. But the French emperor managed to build a new army incredibly fast. With it, he taught the German and Austrian troops a lesson at Dresden. Napoleon put General Vandamme in charge of pursuing the allied army, which was retreating into Bohemia. The decisive battle began on the morning of 30th August 1813 below the Nakléřov Pass, in the area between Teplice and Ústí. The French began to lose their advantage, because Russian troops had joined the allies. Vandamme, however, believed that reinforcements would arrive. They really did arrive, but in Prussian uniforms. As a result, the allies outnumbered the French more than two to one. Vandamme decided to retreat, but by then a third of his army was already dead. He himself was captured, and the rest of his troops scattered.

Within two days, more than 21,000 soldiers fell, about half of them on the French side. In addition, some six hundred houses were destroyed. Chlumec, Stradov, Přestanov, Chabařovice, Žandov and Dolní Varvažov burned to the ground.

The time had come for the monarchs themselves to confer. And so on 9th September 1813, a remarkable trio met at the Golden Cross Hotel on Chateau Square in Teplice: Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Franz I of Austria and King Frederick William III of Prussia. Together with envoys of the King of England, they agreed on how to coordinate further military action. In this way they laid the foundation of the future Quadruple Alliance, a pact that long determined the balance of power in Europe.

Napoleon, still waiting near Dresden, did not accept the defeat and wanted to save the situation by invading Bohemia. But as early as 18th September he was defeated near Varvažov by the Austrian troops of General Colloredo-Mansfeld. In October 1813, a month after the meeting in Teplice, Napoleon suffered a crucial defeat at Leipzig. The vision of a united Europe under the French standard was finally over, and the meeting in Teplice played no small part in that.