Hotel Praha is a communist shelter, it will be difficult to break down, says the architect
Do you remember building a hotel?
It was said that they were doing the project somewhere in Crimea, but for some reason it was based on Hanspaulka. It may not have been true, but it always affected me that way. This building would really be more suitable somewhere on the seashore.
Is it possible to remodel the current building at all?
It was built as a reinforced concrete fortress. Officials at international conventions of the Communist parties were supposed to live here, or what basically served as a shelter. So the design does not allow for much redevelopment. There are quite a few rooms that are oversized, huge areas of lobbies, corridors, halls. Everything has to be heated, air conditioned, so operation is very expensive.
What do you think should happen here in the event of demolition?
If the building was demolished, I can’t say I missed it. Instead, some smaller houses should be built here. Paradoxically, if the big barracks are going to stop it, the situation may be even worse than it is today. And let me remind you that there used to be a public park.
The large building, opened in the 1980s, was bought by the Cypriot company Maraflex.
Experts argue about the artistic and historical significance of the Hotel Prague
The Hotel Praha in Dejvice, Prague, is perceived by some former architectural theorists as a symbol of the regime. However, it also has its supporters who appreciate its quality and call the building above standard due to the time of its creation.
The large building, opened in the 1980s and serving the needs of the Communist Party and the Czechoslovak government until November 1989, has now been bought by the Cypriot company Maraflex. Instead of a hotel, he wants to have new flats on large plots.
According to architecture historian Rostislav Švácha, Hotel Praha does not play a major role in Prague’s post-war architecture. It is not listed, it has not been open to the public for a long time, it is not visible in the Prague skyline. “It is always ideal for every architectural monument if the original meaning is preserved. It probably doesn’t make sense here,” said Švácha.
“The project was not published at the time. The less official part of Czech architecture did not take much of it. So there was never any critical or art-historical debate about it. When something is not talked about, it is reduced to its value,” said Švácha.
Pavel Karous from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, who dedicates public sculptures from the period of normalization, but considers the building to be “extremely interesting”. He even compares it as “liquid architecture” to the famous work of Jan Kaplický.
“It copies the unevenness of the terrain, it is not a block of flats that arose at that time.
“It is not possible to assess the building only in the context of the time and the current political situation in which it was built,” he said. According to him, the Hotel Praha should be preserved and should become a cultural monument. “If a building is supported, there should be a guarantee that it will be replaced by a higher quality building. I cannot imagine that this would be the case,” he added.
Hotel Prague. Visiting the former government depthsThere could be 250 family houses on his land. If they were satisfied with an area of 400 square meters. Great building with a view of Prague Castle, about which not much is known. ![]() Rooms and terraces face south ![]() Water “gushing” from the golden throat in the bathroom of the presidential suite ![]() The hotel pool is 11 meters in diameter |
The historian and theoretician of architecture Petr Kratochvíl does not dare to say whether it is better to demolish the hotel or keep it in its original condition. “I must say that I have always had a very withdrawn relationship with him. He has always been a symbol of the papal hotel for me, where foreign guests of the Congress of the Communist Party were accommodated,” Kratochvíl said.
In addition, the prominent hotel occupies a huge part of the residential area. “It was a foreign body. By its scale, it did not belong there,” Kratochvíl added. If, before a possible reconstruction or demolition of the hotel, a discussion began as to whether the building would declare a cultural monument, Kratochvíl would rather side with the opponents of the monument protection.
According to the experts consulted, significant buildings were erected in the second half of the 20th century, which are worth preserving in their original condition. “One important building after another is leaving us. The most glaring example of the demolition of a valuable building is the Ještěd shopping center in Liberec.
![The prominent Hotel Prague occupied a huge part of the residential area.](https://1gr.cz/fotky/idnes/13/013/cl5/WEB262820_AIR_VIEW1.jpg?v=1)
The prominent hotel occupied a huge piece of residential area.
Hotel Praha was established as an example of Czech architecture and crafts
- Hotel Praha is located in a quiet part of Dejvice, near Evropská třída. It was opened in May 1981 and served the needs of the Communist Party and the Czechoslovak government until November 1989, and was used, for example, to house foreign delegations.
- The architectural competition for the design of the hotel was announced in 1971 and the design of four renowned architects Jaroslav Paroubek, Arnošt Navrátil, Radek Černý and Jan Sedláček won. The construction itself began in 1975. The hotel cost an astronomical eight hundred million crowns.
- The winning project was based on the natural features of a sloping plot, the former Petschk Garden, with an area of 100,000 square meters. The floor plan of the hotel follows the contours and the five-storey building naturally merges into the adjacent large garden.
- Only the highest quality domestic technologies and materials were used in the construction, for example the chandeliers were designed by the famous glass artist Stanislav Libenský, the furniture comes from the renowned interior designer Zbyněk Hřivnáč. Each piece of furniture was according to the original design.
- The built-up area of the Hotel Praha is approximately 9,000 square meters, in which, in addition to conference halls or restaurants, there are also 136 unusually large rooms, including a nearly four-hundred-meter presidential apartment. The rooms face south and offer a unique view of Prague Castle.
- The hotel was opened to the public only after 1989, when it became the property of the Prague City Hall. It was managed by Prague 6, which sold it in 2002 (he was then mayor of Pavel Bém) to Falkon Capital for half a billion crowns. It became known to the public when it bought a billion-dollar Russian debt from the Czech government in 2001.
- In the past, the hotel has housed a number of celebrities, for example in 1995, American actor Tom Cruise stayed during the filming of Mission Impossible. Hotel Praha is also popular with the Czech national football team as a place for its training camps. However, it was here in 2007, after losing to Germany, that an infamous party was held with prostitutes, after which the footballers moved to the nearby Crowne Plaza Hotel (formerly International).