Revivalism I

The 19th century is sometimes seen as a directionless crisis in architecture, as this era did not have any dominant architectural style, but rather several competing styles.
When compared to  building boom of the Prague Baroque era (17th and 18th century), and the very expressive and unique style of baroque architecture, there was no other style that could match  the extent of baroque architecture.This prompted the architects of the turn of the century, to start using historical styles, like Neo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque etc.

These revivalist architectural styles were used because they gave the building a flavor of heritage and dignity in a traditional fashion but with a twist of modernity.

Neo-Gothic or Romanticist styles were particularly popular in Prague from the 1850 till WWI, due to the  political climate of the time.
It was the era before WWI,a time when the Austro-Hungarian empire was being pulled apart by ethnic and political  tension that has arisen between  the myriad of ethnic groups cohabiting  in the decaying empire.