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Sleek and modern inside, the Palace Praha has maintained its classic Viennese Art Nouveau exterior.
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A century of high-class accommodations
Hotels Pariz, Palace Praha embody political history and architectural achievements
By
Kay Grigar
For The Prague Post
(June 24, 2004)
This year marks a milestone for two of Prague's grand historic hotels. The prestigious Hotel Pariz is celebrating its centennial, and the Hotel Palace Praha is close behind at 95 years old. Both are high-end establishments that have incorporated modern conveniences into quintessential examples of grand turn-of-the-century architecture.
The Hotel Pariz is, along with neighboring Obecni dum (the Municipal House), among the finest Art Nouveau structures in all of Prague. The hotel's 86 guest rooms also hearken back to an earlier era, with each one a different size, shape or color. Another distinctive touch is the collection of original artwork, all individually placed by the hotel's current owner, Antonin Brandejs.
The Hotel Palace Praha, located at the corner of Jindrisska and Panska streets across from the Alfons Mucha museum, has more rooms (124) but less historical charm. A renovation during the 1980s gave the interior an incongruously modern look, though celebrities continue to be attracted by its tradition and elegance.
The hotels are celebrating their anniversaries with invitation-only parties -- Wednesday, June 23, at the Hotel Pariz, and Thursday, June 24, at the Hotel Palace Praha. So it's an appropriate time to retrace parallel histories that stretch back through decades of political turbulence to a period of great urban growth and artistic achievement.
Art Nouveau splendor
At the beginning of the 1900s, Prague was already established as a modern city, bristling with economic and cultural growth as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The turn of the century also saw the development of the travel industry. Prior to that time, only fashionable aristocrats could afford to travel and stay in luxury accommodations. As the 20th century dawned, the number and breadth of travelers grew to include gentry and the well-to-do middle classes.
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MCitre d'hotel Miroslav Hudek has been providing first-class service to guests at the Palace Praha for 15 years.
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In touch with both economic and artistic trends of the time, the Czech Brandejs family decided to build a luxury hotel named for France's cultural hub, Paris. Built by architect Jan Vejrych, the facade combined a neo-Gothic style with Art Nouveau elements. Inside, the ceramic mosaics by Josef KOhler and interior design by Antonin Pfeifer are exclusively Art Nouveau.
The charm of the Hotel Pariz today is largely due to its lavish Art Nouveau flourishes, which have been kept perfectly intact. Despite massive renovation to modernize the hotel, it has not, for example, gone to a card system instead of room keys. That way, the detail of the Art Nouveau doorknobs has not been ruined.
Upon entering the hotel, guests are immediately submerged in Art Nouveau splendor. A spiral staircase with a cast-iron railing and gold-plated motifs cascades down to the lobby, a particularly stunning sight when one looks down from the top floor. Along the staircase, recessed window panels with rosette and citrus designs are complemented by cheerful, hand-painted floral motifs.
A focal point of the Hotel Pariz is the Sarah Bernhardt Restaurant, named in honor of the famous French actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The restaurant is also a study in Art Nouveau craftsmanship. A smoky blue mosaic encompasses the room, which has high ceilings and ornate, eye-catching light fixtures. To make it more accessible to Prague residents, a street entrance was added in 2001, a year in which many other renovations were done.
The present owner is the grandson of the founder. Hotel Pariz was taken away from the family and nationalized in 1948 but remained open over the next four decades. According to a waiter in the Cafe de Paris who has been working at the hotel for 19 years, the decor was bleaker during that time, but the historic details never fell into unmanageable disrepair.
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A dirigible floats past the Hotel Pariz in 1916; inside, the ornate main staircase retains its luster.
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After the collapse of communism, the building was finally restituted to Antonin Brandejs in 1991. He continues to develop the hotel's extensive art collection, which can be seen throughout the lobby and hallways and in the rooms.
Part of what makes the Hotel Pariz unique is its combination of the old and new in both atmosphere and design. The most dramatic example of this is the Royal Tower suite, three rooms designed by Martin Kotik from Omicron Architects. The suite uses every nook and cranny of what used to be attic space. Light fixtures accentuate the shadows of the angular room, and a massive window that replaced the clock on the hotel tower -- the only alteration made to the original exterior -- looks out on a magnificent view of Prague, especially at night. A winding staircase leads up to a viewing tower, where guests can take in a 360-degree view and entertain in style. Regular guests in the Royal Tower suite include G•nter Verheugen, the commissioner for European expansion, and musician Nick Cave.
Star quality
The Hotel Palace Praha had humbler beginnings. Completed in 1909 in a Viennese Art Nouveau style, it was the work of Frantisek Buldro, a Prague builder and the owner of the hotel, together with architect George Justich.
In its early days, one of the principal sections of the building was a pub, while another was home to a large slaughterhouse. After Emanuel Oppel took ownership of the building in 1924, it was converted into a five-star hotel and by virtue of its location became a center point of Prague's cultural life. One of its first notable guests was African-American actress, singer and dancer Josephine Baker.
The hotel reached a watershed Jan. 1, 1986, when it was closed for not meeting the standards of up-to-date accommodations. After lengthy deliberations among experts and input from the general public, it was decided that the hotel should be thoroughly but "sensitively" renovated. In execution, this meant preserving the historical facade of the building but completely gutting and redesigning the interior. As a result, when the Hotel Palace Praha reopened in 1989, it was with an eclectic decor not integrated very successfully with the historical exterior.
However, this has not diminished the hotel's level of service nor its star quality. The Palace Praha's primary claim to fame is its customer portfolio, a long list of the rich and famous ranging from actors and musicians to politicians and businessmen. In the summer of 1990, for example, the hotel had to meet the demands of the Rolling Stones. American actor Alan Alda is said to have asked in perfect Czech for a glass of slivovice when he stayed there.
The star quality even extends to the hotel's employees. Maître d'hotel Miroslav Hudek, who has been at the hotel since it reopened in 1989, says that he considers "the restaurant my stage and the guests my audience." Hotel patrons have reportedly compared him with John Cleese's character in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. It's meant as a good-natured compliment -- Hudek clearly gets the job done a lot more successfully than Basil Fawlty.
Throughout all the changes of the 20th century, both of these elegant architectural gems have stood fast. Even in a city of centuries-old landmarks, it's a remarkable achievement and well worth birthday celebrations. Here's to many more.
Reader's Comments:
[27/02/2005] : Would like to comment on E. Rail's article about Siemens S65 phone. The writer did not mention anything about IR port (I realize it is hard to mention all of the options/specs but I think IR port is an important one). I have the phone for almost 2 months now and the IR port is VERY convenient. It is SO EASY to transfer data from the phone to my notebook, equiped with IR port.
Quote: "Some of the ring tones are surprisingly shrill and uncool for a top-of-the-line device, and a number of the phone's color themes are equally goofy."
Maybe ring tones are not that cool but to tell the truth I listened to them only once. Yes, only once, the day I got the phone. Then, I downloaded a lot of ringtones to my notebook and transferred them easily to the phone through IR port. Now I have the coolest ring tones and even songs in .wav format. Also, there are a lot of themes available online that you can download and change easily. I did not change the default one (yet) because I like it. Maybe after I get tired of it I will change it to something new. Also, downloaded a lot of java games and successfully transferred to the phone, again through IR port.
My previous phone was a CDMA phone - therefore no SIM card. I had to transfer all the numbers to the new S65 phone. The process was a breeze thanks to Mobile Phone Manager software (downloaded for free from Siemens web site) and again, IR port.
There are many other positive things about S65. I did some "googling" before I purchased it. I am very satisfied with Siemens S65 mobile phone no matter what others say! ;-)
Nazar Kharivsky
United States | [20/02/2005] : Quote from Brian O'Reilly Boston, NY
"In my opinion, the only way to fix the problem between the 2 cultures [West and Islam] is to for us to accept that we are all humans regardless of our religions."
I thought that only Europeans are naive...
paragon large
USA | [18/02/2005] : It seems curious that the "West" is downplaying the horrors of Communism that were committed between the years of 1919 and 1953 in the former Soviet Republics and later in Easter Europe. Whereas the Nazi Reich lasted only twelve years and killed some ten million, the brutal Soviet Communist State lasted over seventy years and killed probably three times as many. Joseph Stalin and his multi-ethnical NKVD henchmen have starved millions of innocent Ukrainias and deported and worked to death many millions more of every nationality and walk of life. And although thousands of real people did the communist killings, guarded the communist concentration and labor camps, and ran the Soviet communist police state, there are no household names and the history of the perpetrators available and/or published in the West. Therefore, it seems to me that the East Europeans who did suffer under Communism do have the moral high ground in Brussels when they bring up, discuss and compare the known Nazi tyrany with the past and relatively unpublicized Communist terror.
Paul Zellman
Los Angeles, California | [10/12/2004] : Sir, what a tangled web we all weave. Those of us that oppose the E.U are gearing up for a show down with the politicians. As the people of your great country will knwow the vast majority of UK citizens are against this so called new constitution and if the exit polls are to be believed if there was a vote tommorow Great Britain would almost certainly veto it! This of course would mean the whole idea is srcapped and no doubt we would be labelled yet again as the thorn in the europeans side. I notice from your Prague Post vote that the Czech people would vote for such an ammendment - all be it narrowly - so it would seem that there is strong sceptisism with your people as well as my own. Earlier this year a met a good man, his name is Martin (Fishar) and he is from Prague. He has become one of my greatest true friends and we have had many a disscussion late into the night over this whole subject. Indeed, both he and his then girlfriend were at my house on the stroke of midnight when the Czech Republic officially became a member of the E.U. They raised a glass in celebration - and why not? I understand that our two countries are very differnt. But, we also have great things in common, the main one being PRIDE. Just because i am anti the E.U does not mean i am anti Europe. Indeed as far as i am concerned it is the finest continent on earth, and that is precisely why i am so against the forced changes imposed on us all on an almost regular basis. One passport, one currency and even maybe soon one army. This is not what we joined for back in 1974. It was supposed to be a free trade market where everything and anything would be cheaper and easily available. Instead, thanks to both France and Germany it is swiftly becoming a superstate, designed in my mind to challenge the might and authority of America. This must end, and quickly. We have all become pawns at the mercy of Brussels. In your own E.U Referendum within the pages of PraguePost 8.3% of those who have so far voted have declared they would abstain. I would say to those that when you have to decide for real PLEASE search your hearts and consciences - your futures, not just you but your childrens children will one day look back in history and decide wheather we made the right decissions. I only hope that we can look them in the eye and honestly say yes, we did. Matthew Puddy, 31.
Mr Matthew Puddy
Lyme Regis, Dorset. United Kingdom | [09/12/2004] : Oh for the days of Bill Clinton. He had "style". He could smoozz the Euros, tell them everything they want to hear----and then-----do nothing. From Kyoto to South American drug problems. Why on the very last day of his presidency, he pardoned a known drug lord. Now I call that "style". In Bush, similiar to Reagan, he tells you what he intends to do and does it. That is so foreign to the European mind and Euro's present leaders. The truth is if the Russians wanted to walk over Europe the combined armies of Europe could not stop them without using nucular weapons or draft guest workers. In the light of the UN corruption scandal, who knows who are the bad guys or who are the good guys. No one needs to go see American movies. Truth is, I think almost all are too juvenile for my taste. Yet the french and Germans and others seem to like them. I'm not sure what that means. There is not enough room for me to go into the wider view of the world situation and how this plays out to the present situation. Perhaps seeing Moore's F 911 one more time will help the European intelligencia see the situation clearer.
Dusan Lipensky
Wheaton, United States | [02/12/2004] : Regarding the article "West Meets Middle East", I just found it quiet interesting on how muslims have been generalised into one category which is "terrorists". I understand why the writer is concerned about the differences in culture between the two, but aren't also budhism, shintoism, and hinduism? I think in this day and age, newspapers and writers have a great pleasure in villifying someone for their success in.
An interesting point I found out is how selfish the writer was when he said: "Intellectuals uttering attacks on Islam may seem distasteful to many but they help spur debate that can ultimately be healthy". While he stated earlier:"France has taken some steps, seeking to train responsible imams who will teach a version of Islam that is respectful of the republic." Now I agree that some Imams need to be removed if they do spur revolution, but in western society today any imam(or any middle eastern) can be easily jailed/deported if he/she says anything against the residing country. That is for the simple reason that islam is viewed as a danger by westerners. In my opinion, the only way to fix the problem between the 2 cultures is to for us to accept that we are all humans regardless of our religions.
Brian O'Reilly
Boston, NY |
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