Café Slavia

The Café Slavia (Address: Smetanovo nábřeží 1012/2 ) is a well-known artists from Prague cafe in the style of the 1930s on the banks of the Vltava River. However, the most famous piece of furniture is the datable from 1901 Art Nouveau painting " The Absinthe Drinker " by Viktor Oliva.

History

The café was established in 1884 as a theater café in the Count Leopold Lazansky associated, built from 1861 to 1863, interest Palais. Begun in 1868 the neighboring Czech National Theater had the hospitality all around lying stimulated.

The Café Slavia opened its doors on August 30, 1884, benefited greatly from the theater. Among the regulars included Bedřich Smetana (who also temporarily resided at this address ), the actor and the director Jindrich Mosna Jaroslav Kvapil.

In the interwar period, the restaurant was redesigned in line with the French art deco style. The restaurant was a meeting place for authors such as Karel Čapek, Jaroslav Seifert or later, at the time of communism Václav Havel. The avant-garde Czech artists' association " Devětsil " ( Nine force) met here.

As the name suggests, the restaurant was connotes more nationally Czech from the beginning. But Egon Erwin Kisch and the last German -language narrator of Prague Lenka Reinerová wrong here occasionally here also met the so-called Freitagsrunde the Pátečníci.

Rainer Maria Rilke immortalized the Slavia literary as " National Café " in his novels "King Bohusch " and " Brothers and sisters ". Also in the book " Halley's Comet " by Jaroslav Seifert Slavia plays a role.

In the poem " Cafe Slavia " (1967) Seifert writes about visiting Guillaume Apollinaire in Slavia:

" The poet in honor drank absinthe, that is greener than green things, and when we looked out the window from our table, flowed the Seine under the wharf. Ah yes, the Seine! "

Ota Filip wrote in 1985 the Roman Cafe Slavia and Reiner Kunze is called a sub- section of his book The Wonderful Years Café Slavia.

Slavia was nationalized in 1948 and in 1992 leased to a Russo - American businesswoman. It has been re-opened in 1997 and is now popular with the Prague audience as well as tourists.