PRAGUE ROTARY WEEK

Prague 1 – Nové Město, 45

WHERE PRAGUE ROTARY CLUBS MEET – 14. 5. 2019 / 19:00

The Hotel Jalta, where Rotary Club Praha City members have been meeting since 2018, was built in a blank space left over by an air raid on Prague in 1945. The edifice, completed in the “socialist realism” style in 1958, was used by Čedok Travel Agency. President Antonín Zápotocký’s support for the project enabled the architect Antonín Tenzer to design a unique building with tailored details and interiors. A trained stonemason, President Zápotocký helped to select the marble and travertine sidings and sculptures in the second floor balconies were created by Jan Jiřikovský. The interior glass decorations came from master glass artist Stanislav Libenský. It was one of the costliest products of its epoch. A nuclear shelter in the second basement could accommodate 250 persons. The bunker’s three-metre-thick lead-filled concrete walls provided protection against radiation. The shelter was equipped with a private hospital and underground water tank. Its existence was revealed as recently as 1990. Today it houses a Museum of Cold War. The popular Czech film, Men about Town, was shot in the hotel barroom in the late 1960s. The current owner has executed two overhauls (in 2007 and 2013) to meet modern-day requirements. The hotel is a national heritage site.

The Boutique Hotel Jalta is part of the Prague Heritage Area, registered as a UNESCO-protected world heritage site.