The Bellevue house by Karel Stolar - Prague, Czech Republic
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ToRo61
N 50° 05.063 E 014° 24.820
33U E 458052 N 5548176
The Bellevue house by Karel Stolar
Waymark Code: WMTQR2
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/31/2016
Views: 31
he building was constructed in the Dutch Renaissance style in the 19 th century and was given the name "Bellevue" ("beautiful view") because of its location. An exceptional panoroma of the Vltava River and Prague’s Castle District enhance the perfect harmony of excellent wines and exclusive food served in the dimmed intimate atmosphere of the luxury restaurant bearing the same name.
The Bellevue on Smetana Embankment (Smetanovo nábreží) was named based on the fact that it has one of the most beautiful Prague views of the Vltava River and Hradcany: Bellevue is a French word meaning a “beautiful view”. The same name was given to a café that was opened there by entrepreneur Filipi after the building completion. Previously, the Papoušek’s Bath (Papouškovy lázne) used to stand there. During the construction of a chain bridge and embankment, all buildings standing there had to be purchased: houses, baths, mills and enclosures. After completion of the bridge and embankment, the rows of residential rental houses were built according to a project by architect Bernard Gruber from 1849. The houses were designed uniformly in a temperate complexion of late Classicism. Only two-storey houses were allowed to be built there, which rule was totally broken by architect Konstantin Mrácek while designing the Bellevue house at the end of this row at a triangular site between Smetana Embankment and Karoliny Svetlé Street. The house from fair-faced dark red bricks has three wings.
The main façade faces the river while the porch of the former Café Bellevue, where there is a restaurant of the same name today, faces the northern side. On the top floor under the roof there used be painting studios. The painter Oskar Kokoschka (
visit link) worked in one of them when he fled Austria in 1934 for Prague because of rising Nazism.
The author of this painting is Karel Stolar. Karel Stolar is the book illustrator who is dedicated to creating drawings sights. You can find this painting in book 'Pražské domy vyprávejí IV.'
This book is one of a twelve-part series of books describing structural changes and the development of cultural-historical monuments of Prague (houses, villas and palaces, library, banks, school, museum, hospital, farm, etc.).