Café Slavia, Prague

Café Slavia is the historic café occupying the ground floor of Lažanský Palace, beside the Vltava and opposite the National Theatre. Its large windows frame Prague Castle, Petřín lookout tower, Malá Strana, and the river. The café opened in August 1884 and became a meeting place for writers, artists, performers, and political thinkers.

Its cultural life reached far beyond ordinary coffeehouse conversation: Václav Havel and Jiří Kolář were among the figures associated with it during the normalization period, when it also became a gathering place for dissident intellectuals. The interior carries the memory of a major Art Deco rebuilding by Václav Fišer, Jaroslav Štěrba, and architect Oldřich Stefan. Marble and wood surfaces, leather seating, broad mirrors, and rounded tables shaped the renewed rooms, while large windows tied the café to the city outside.

Look through those windows toward the river and the theatre: this setting explains why Slavia became such a powerful stage for Prague’s literary and artistic life. The café closed during a legal dispute and reopened in 1997; it continues its tradition with literary evenings.