A Neo-Renaissance apartment house of the 1880s, turned into offices at the birth of Czechoslovakia and given a new face: flat geometric planes, a domed corner and a row of classical reliefs.
At a glance
The building at Hybernská 42 closes the eastern end of Hybernská street with a domed corner. It was built in 1884 as an apartment house by František Hebrle (Franz Heberle) with a Neo-Renaissance facade, and in 1918–1919 it was adapted into an office building by Bohumil Kozák and Václav Nekvasil, who gave it the cubo-classicist facade it has today. It was declared a cultural monument in 2003. The building now houses the Hotel King David.
Key facts
- Where: Hybernská 1674/42, Nové Město, Prague 1
- Built: 1884, apartment house, by František Hebrle (Franz Heberle)
- Remodelled: 1918–1919 into an office building by Bohumil Kozák and Václav Nekvasil
- Style: Neo-Renaissance core; facade in a late-Secession and geometric modern manner, described by the heritage record as cubo-classicist
- Protection: cultural monument, ÚSKP no. 100275, protected since 22 May 2003
- Current use: Hotel King David
- Coordinates: 50.086595, 14.436753 · open in Google Maps
History
The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) records that František Hebrle built it in 1884 as an apartment house on the corner at the end of Hybernská, with a Neo-Renaissance facade.
The second life of the building began in 1918–1919, when it was adapted for offices by Bohumil Kozák and Václav Nekvasil. The heritage record describes the result as a facade in the style of the late Secession and of geometric modernism, and singles out Kozák as a significant architect whose neoclassical reworking gave the house its value. Not everything of 1884 was replaced: the richly carved entrance doors, the record notes, survive from the Neo-Renaissance phase.
The building has been used as a hotel for some time. Older photographs on Wikimedia Commons show the same facade lettered “Hotel Terminus” with a Golden Tulip sign on the roof; today the name on the facade is Hotel King David.
What you see
The corner rises into a tower-like block crowned by a green copper dome with a single arched window. The cream facades are flat and restrained, as the NPÚ puts it, built up from vertically layered geometric planes rather than from applied ornament. Under the cornice, square panels carry classical figures in relief, and between the windows of one of the lower floors runs a row of oval medallions with further reliefs. A band of zigzag moulding runs above the ground floor.
The heritage record also describes the interior of the time of construction: marble cladding in the vestibule, a staircase with a cast-iron railing, paving on the landings, iron grilles, marble window sills, coffered ceilings and doors. These are inside a working hotel and are not described here from our own observation.
Practical information
- The building is the Hotel King David; the facades can be seen from the street at any time.
- The best view of the dome is from across the junction at the end of Hybernská.
- The carved entrance doors from 1884 are at street level.
Getting there
Hybernská runs east from Náměstí Republiky and the Municipal House; number 42 is at its far end, past Masaryk Station. The Náměstí Republiky metro station and the tram stop at Masarykovo nádraží are both a short walk away.
Nearby
- Masaryk Station (Masarykovo nádraží), Prague’s first railway terminus, on the same street.
- Hotel Central, Prague, further along Hybernská.
- Na Poříčí 7, the insurance palace where Kafka worked.
Sources
- Památkový katalog (NPÚ), činžovní dům, Hybernská 1674/42, ÚSKP 100275: dates, architects, description of facade and interior, heritage value.
- ČÚZK, RÚIAN address register: Hybernská 1674/42, Nové Město.
- Hotel King David, official website: the hotel’s address, Hybernská 42.
- Wikimedia Commons, photograph by JiriMatejicek (Hotel King David) and photograph by Michal Kmínek (the same facade as Hotel Terminus).
- The building history rests on the NPÚ record; the hotel’s website gives no history of the house.
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