As I live in Prague, it’s not always my idea to walk into a hotel and have a coffee. But wrong! I did it recently and I don’t regret it. In this article, I’d like to introduce you to two incredible hotels for staying in or just eating out!
Hotel Paris
The hotel is located opposite the Maison municipale, in the heart of the Old Town. Lately, the visitors I’ve been accompanying on their discovery of Prague and who have been staying here have been raving about the magnificence of the premises. While updating a tourist guide, I was also dazzled by photos of the Art Nouveau furniture from the early 20th century (1904). Go to Tony’s café & bar! Excellent cappuccino or Paris cake and what furniture! I love the little tables!
The hotel’s exterior façade is neo-Gothic with Art Nouveau elements. It will surprise you with its mosaics at the corner of the building (intersection of U Obecního domu and Králodvorská streets). Above the cornice, a carved gable and the hotel tower. You’ll also notice – in addition to the sometimes incongruous portraits and statues on the façade – the little boat emblem of Paris, also visible in mosaic above the entrance porch. For the hotel is called Paris, or Paříž in Czech, inscribed in small white cobblestones still in front of the entrance. For a long time, the restaurant was named after Sarah Bernhardt, the Parisian playwright who launched the career of Alfons Mucha, who notably decorated the Municipal House opposite. The hotel has always cultivated its Art Nouveau and Parisian image!
Nationalized in 1948 by the Communists and falling into ruin in the 1970s, the hotel was returned to its owners, the Brandejs family, in 1991. It was rebuilt in 1998, restoring all its Art-Nouveau cachet, and is now a 5-star hotel with 124 luxury rooms and apartments. The fact that it stands at the corner of two streets and has two magnificent wings contributes to its beauty and makes it one of Prague’s must-see buildings.
Famous guests have included King Charles or Mick Jagger, a close friend of
Václav Havel, the Dalai Lama or Jean-Claude Van Damme (yes, it’s not the same thing, but the hotel brings people together). It’s also said that Louis Armstrong wrote What a Wonderful World here!
But it’s perhaps the interior that’s most impressive, with its unique Art Nouveau furnishings: exceptional lighting fixtures, colorful mosaics, engraved glass windows, staircases with wrought-iron balustrades. In Bohumil Hrabal‘s book, I Who Served the King of England, the hero is on the verge of breaking down before the beauty of the place (just as, much later and in the cinema, Spider-Man and his American classmates will be flabbergasted by the furnishings of the NH Collection Carlo IV hotel). The Hotel Paris has attracted filmmakers including Jiří Menzel, for the aforementioned adaptation of I Who Served the King of England.
The lucky ones will sleep there! Spa with jacuzzi and sauna.
Hotel Paris
U Obecního domu
W Prague
Hotel W is the successor to the incredible Art Nouveau Grand Europa hotel on Wenceslas Square. The hotel was completely renovated over a decade and reopened in 2024. Today, it’s the perfect combination of Prague’s rich past with modern elements and visionary design. It has also been one of the city’s most beautiful facades for over a century. You won’t want to miss it, with its plant motifs and the golden sculpture that dominates it, bearing a globe-shaped lamp, the symbol of Europe. The 5-star hotel, with its incredible design and furnishings, now houses 161 rooms and suites.
Built in 1872 in neo-Renaissance style, the Hotel Grand Europa was rebuilt in Art Nouveau style in 1905, with statues by the emblematic sculptor Ladislav Šaloun (statue of Jan Hus in Old Town Square, decoration of the Municipal House, astonishing statues associated with legends on either side of Nová radnice, today’s Town Hall).
Between the wars, under the name Grand Hotel Šroubek, it was one of the most luxurious hotels in Central Europe, and Grand Café Evropa was a chic meeting place for Prague’s elite.
In 1912, Franz Kafka gave his only public reading in his native Prague in the Hall of Mirrors. Later, Nicholas Winton, the saviour of Jewish children before the Second World War whose moving story was adapted for the screen in the film A Life, stayed here. The furnishings are so exceptional that scenes from Mission Impossible were also filmed here, and its dining room inspired James Cameron for the dinner scene in Titanic!
But like the Hotel Paris, the Hotel Europa was nationalized in 1951 under Communism and renamed the Grand Hotel Evropa, before falling into disrepair until 1989. Privatized, it was still possible to stay there until 2013 for a modest price, given the furnishings, but it was no longer the splendor of yesteryear (far from it, since the toilets were sometimes at the end of the corridor!) It was accessible one last time in 2014 as part of a design festival, before being renovated (see photos below).
Since the renovation, a new, modern eight-storey building has been erected in the courtyard. Within the hotel, you’ll find the historic Grand Café, as well as W Lounge, Minus One for cocktails or Above Rooftop at the top with panoramic views over Prague. Not to mention the indoor pool, fitness center and luxurious spa… All perfectly renovated. The atrium, with its original stucco details from 1905, is now adorned with a beautiful crystal installation by the famous Czech glassmaker Preciosa (one of my favorites!) At least have a coffee there on the first floor, chandeliers and mirrors will dazzle you! Prague is changing fast, but it’s staying true to its glorious past and the splendor of yesteryear.
W Prague
Václavské náměstí 25
Other hotels in Prague occupy majestic locations:
- Art Deco Imperial
- NH Collection Carlo IV
- St. Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel
- Hotel Pod Věží
