Cafe Louvre - coffee, tradition, Prague
Café with name of a world famous gallery
The Café Louvre on today’s Národní Avenue, which was opened in 1902, has always belonged to the first rank of Prague’s cafés.
Today, you can still ascend the spacious staircase with its walls clad in marble with its Secessionist iron handrail, decorated with stylish mistletoe twigs, to the café on the first floor.
There, visitors used to be welcomed by "the great world’s beauty, emphasized by impressive electric globes” and a "black man in a tailcoat". Rooms facing the then Ferdinand’s Avenue through through their large windows with round window frames also included the neighbouring building, facing Spálená Street, so the resulting impression of space was quite magnificent. Abundant natural light, numerous mirrors, fine pastel shades of the walls and light furniture emphasised this feeling.
The Café Louvre was visited by many world-renowned celebrities and several associations and organisations were established here.
For example in the year 1925, the Čapek brothers founded the Czech "Pen Club". In the year 1910, the “Sursum” art association was formed here.
Franz Kafka used to visit with his friends, and so did Albert Einstein during his stay in Prague in 1911--1912.
Albert Einstein Professor Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist, one of the most significant scientists of all times. He is often labelled the greatest scientist of the 20th century, and possibly together with Newton the most important physicist ever. His most remarkable contribution to physics is the General Theory of Relativity. |
Franz Kafka JUDr. Franz Kafka, a Prague writer of Jewish origin, one of the most influential figures and most appraised writers of the 20th century. |
Karel Čapek PhDr. Karel Čapek was a renowned Czech prose writer, playwright, journalist, children’s book author, translator, philosopher and one of the leaders of Czech cultural life during the era of the First Republic (1918-1938). |
The Café’s life was forcibly interrupted by the communist coup in 1948 – its interior fixtures were flung out of its windows down into the street outside.
Its cultural melting pot tradition was only revived by the café only after the year 1992 when its devastated premises underwent a major reconstruction.
The Café was thus reopened, including the billiards hall. The premises, with their ceiling and wall decorations dating back to the 30s of the previous century, are, however, presented in a somewhat modified appearance.
At the western end of the main room, a smaller space has been separated, today serving as a saloon, and one of the rooms where billiards used to be played, now serves as a restaurant. Just like a hundred years ago, the Café Louvre opens as early as eight in the morning, which is rather unusual in today’s Prague, and it is a very popular place for both local inhabitants as well as visitors to the city.
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