Hotel InterContinental Prague - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

Hotel InterContinental, one of the largest and the most luxury hotels in Prague, is also one of iconic buildings of modern architectural style called ""brutalism".

InterContinental Prague was built as part of the InterContinental Hotels Group in the 1960s and 70s. This upscale hotel has a total capacity of 372 rooms including suites. It offers 14 function rooms and a congress hall for up to 580 delegates. It provides comprehensive hotel services. It comprises a panoramic restaurant Zlatá Praha, a breakfast restaurant Primátor and the Duke's Bar & Café. A Health Club & Spa with its swimming-pool, sauna, gym and Spa & Beauty programme is also a key feature of the hotel.

When back in the sixties the managers of the American company Tower International ING decided to invest in developing a large international hotel in Prague, the opinions of where it should be located were varied. The chosen location was to be a part of the Vltava river spinal axisin light of the intended social function of the hotel. Another prerequisite was that the building should occupy a central position within the heart of the city. The bridge-head of Cechuv Bridge known as Námestí Curieových square today, where gunpowder used to be made a hundred years before, was originally intended to build one of the faculties of a university complex in. However, the City Hall dismissed this idea in the end. The proposal to develop a hotel was approved in1965 and the company InterContinental Hotels Corporation signed a contract with the Czech investor Cedok two years later. The construction itself, which should have been completed by 1970, finally took four years longer and the test operations could commence no sooner than in August 1974. It was in December of the same year that the hotel opened its doors wide and the life of the InterContinental Prague could finally take off at full speed. The exterior parts of the building were designed by a team of prominent Czech architects led by Karel Filsak in the 1960s. The modern interiors arose under the baton of architect Jan Šrámek and his team.

The monolithic construction made of reinforced concrete was designed by the architects as an independent building with the main entrance on its southern side. They created its facade using raw concrete with a clinker veneer made from brick-clay. It is because of the use of rough concrete surfaces that their style is often referred to as Czech brutalism (derived from the French béton brut – raw concrete). Originally it was an architectural "sculptural" style based on exceptional space solutions. Abroad, brutalism is represented namely by the iconic constructions performed by the architects Le Corbusier (Jaoul in Neuilly near Paris), M. Safdie (Habitat complex in Montreal, Canada) or K.Tange (Cultural Centre in Nichinan). The style culminated in the half of the 20thcentury. The InterContinental Prague was the first brutalist constructionin the former Czechoslovakia. It is also justly regarded as the finest-quality brutalist construction in Czech Republic today. Filsak and Šrámek have notably contributed to the transformation of Czechoslovak architecture. Their early work include, for example, the Public Prosecution Headquarters in Brazil, Delhi and Nairobi or the Václav Havel Airport in Prague. The Embassy in London has even received an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

In the 40 years of its existence, the InterContinental has become an integral and inherent part of Prague’s history and architecture. It has without any doubt considerably contributed to the development of tourism in Prague, too. Over its four decades, the hotel has been visited by an array of famous personalities. Politicians, world-format show-business stars and sportsmen were all meeting here. The hotel has had the honour of accommodating Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Depeche Mode and the Rolling Stones. Taking turns at the hotel were also prominent personalities from the world political scene, such as Madeleine Albright, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, Francois Mitterrand, George Bush Sr. and Hillary Clinton. The world of sports was represented by for example the Formula 1 racer Nicky Lauda who also came to stay with us.

[excerpted from Wikipedia]