Real Estate Czech Republic

Some years ago I attended a news conference at an upmarket Italian stylerestaurant in Prague’s Slovansk?? d??m, a palace at the N??m?›st?­Republiky end of Na P?™?­kop?› St. The event, something to do withathletics, took place outside in the then quite recently renovatedbuilding’s courtyard. It was at least five minutes before it hit me -wait a second, I know this place, this used to be the beer garden! Slovansk?? d??m courtyard nowadaysHeaven knows how many evenings I had spent in that very space a decadeearlier. The beer garden was leafy, lively, big, cheap and about ascentralas it gets. It was also the place where, a few days into my first visit toPrague in 1992, I chipped a tooth on an extremely stale piece of ? umavabread.Today Slovansk?? d??m, which means Slavic House, is home to shops,offices, a multiplex cinema and several eateries, with the Italian styleplace mentioned above where the Czech president likes to holdcelebrations.But in the early 1990s it had clearly seen better days. It hadn’t alwaysbeen “Slavic” either - apparently from the 1870s to 1945 it was hometo a German casino and was known as Deutsches Haus.When my mates and I were frequenting Slovansk?? d??m the word was that ithad served as a social centre for Nazi officers during the war. I’venever come across any substantiation of that claim, but there wascertainlyenough faded grandeur about the place to make it seem plausible.As well as the beer garden outside, a large part of the interior was inthose days home to one of the best nightclubs I’ve ever been to. The TamTam had a room with nice lighting and mellow music, a bigger, louder bararea and a large hall that served as a music venue. It took me right backwhen I found myself at a party in that hall - now all shiny and new -after a film premiere about a year and a half ago. Wandering into to aroomnext door also brought a sense of d?©j?  vu - it was there we watchedthe1994 World Cup.Often if we weren’t drinking in Slovansk?? d??m we were to be found atthe nearby Obecn?­ d??m, for my money the most magnificent building in acity that’s full of them. Pre-renovation, it was also home to pubs and aclub.At the time carousing in such places was just one more thing that madePrague great. But now I realise that we - and the pub and club operators- were enjoying a brief window between the fall of communism and therenewal that was bound to follow once capitalism gained traction. It wasgood while it lasted.

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