Café Slavia (est. 1844)

The Historic Café Slavia is a majestic building next to The National Theatre of Prague.

Founded in 1884 the Café was covered by perforated wallpaper and had chandeliers in Art Nouveau style.

The Cafe was always the favorite place of interesting guests. Since its opening, Slavia attracted artists. Thanks to itssuitable location opposite of The National Theatre, the most of the actors eneded up there after the performance. They were often accompanied by composer Bedřich Smetana or director Jaroslav Kvapil.

In the last century Slavia became an epicentre of Czech culture. Writers Karel and Josef Čapek, Arnošt Lustig, art theorists Karel Teige and Václav Černý, poets Vítězslav Nezval and Jaroslav Seifert, painters Jan Zrzavý and Václav Špála met there. During the writting The Building of State, journalist Ferdinand Peroutka was sitting there and got there necessary literature sended from the Prague Castle (which he often did not returned back to president Masaryk). Slavia pulsed. It experienced a funeral of Tomáš G. Masaryk and Vítězslav Nezval as well as the beginning of The Velvet Revolution or a visit of Hillary Clinton.