About hotel

Where Legerova street is, a pedestrian path originally stretched along the original walls of the New Town of Prague. It led north to the fords across the Vltava near Štvanice and south to today’s district – Nuslím. The walls of New Town were built by Charles IV. in the middle of the 14th century and measured approximately 6 km.

Legerova Street is today a wide street with a busy thoroughfare, but it was not like that in the past. It was a wide boulevard where trams also ran at the beginning of the 20th century. It was named in 1900 after a French university professor at the Sorbonne in Paris who supported the idea of ​​an independent Czech state, Louis Leger.

The hotel building was built at the end of the 19th century in the style of classicism with elements of art nouveau. The very ornate classicist facade of the building, the entrance door and the entrance corridor of the hotel reflect its time with elegance, airiness and quality, which even modern builders will appreciate. Art Nouveau elements are still evident today, for example, on the typical staircase railing or on the stained-glass windows of the double doors, which originally contained etched glass with the motifs of Alfons Mucha’s paintings. This glass was preserved in only one of the apartments on the 5th floor. The hotel got its name from these stained glass windows.

The building belongs to the historical zone of Prague, therefore any modifications to the building are approved by the authorities in such a way that they do not violate its historical character. Originally, the building had a purely residential purpose. The individual floors had two spacious four-room apartments with high ceilings and double doors between the individual rooms. Before the introduction of central gas heating, the apartments were heated only in the kitchen, where cooking was done, and in two other rooms there was a coal stove. Since it was a district of the “higher classes and intelligentsia”, every apartment was looked after by a housekeeper and the house was looked after like a janitor. The street was wide enough that a tram, as well as two horse-drawn carriages or the first carriages facing each other, could easily pass through it at one point. Due to the rise of communism, the building was forced to be nationalized in the mid-1940s. Many tenants had to leave the building and mostly as “inconvenient” to the communist regime they had to leave Prague within 24 hours. This dark period, which lasted more than 40 years, had a very negative effect on the building, and in the 90s, when democracy came and it was returned to the original owners, the building was in a desolate state. The owners, both doctors by profession, gradually repaired and renovated the building for more than 15 years, largely with their own help.

The idea of ​​a hotel came only with the next generation. After extensive renovations, today’s Alfons Boutique Hotel was opened at the end of 2018. After the very difficult period of Covid, when everyone reached the limit of existence, the hotel, headed by the owners, is once again cared for by a great team of people with maximum effort for guest satisfaction. The message of the hotel owners is to oppose the philosophy of hotel chains, which unified standards and minimized personal guest care. As a boutique hotel, our goal is to preserve “hospitality” in its original meaning, i.e. in such a way that humanity and individuality do not disappear, so that guests not only feel at home, but also take away from Prague unforgettable experiences for a stay in an exceptional environment.

• Each room is different, because it was very complicated to place hotel rooms in a historical building in such a way that the structure was not disturbed and that the heritage institute agreed with the reconstruction.

• In the interior of each room, you will find an illuminated picture inspired by Alfons Mucha’s graphics. These paintings were rendered by the Czech artist Roman Řehák. He creates all his creations in mobile phone applications.

• The furniture was made from old dead oaks from forests 40 kilometers outside of Prague, which are owned by the old Italian-Austrian princely family of Colloredo-Mansfeld. The oldest tree was 300 years old.

• The hotel keeps its own bees on the roof of the building. Honey from these bees is one of the highest quality. The reason is the biodiversity of plants in the city’s parks and zero chemical spraying, which is, for example, in the fields.

• The hotel is now seeking the “Ecolabel” ecological hotel certification, awarded by the European Commission. So far, only few hotels in Prague owns the ecological brand. Together, help us to be kinder to our planet and preserve the environment and nature for future generations.

Art Nouveau painter, graphic artist and designer Alfons Maria Mucha was born on July 24, 1860 in Ivančice, Moravia. He liked drawing and painting since childhood, but when Mucha applied to the Prague Academy in 1878, he was rejected “due to lack of talent”. However, he did not give up his drawing work and earned extra money by painting backdrops for various theater companies. He also painted backdrops in Vienna, where he moved in 1879. Count Karla Khuen-Belassi learned about his talent, who invited Mucha to him
he decorated his castle in Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou with frescoes according to his skill. The count was so impressed by his work that he sent Mucha to study at the painting academy in Munich.

A star named Mucha began to rise in Paris
In 1887, Mucha moved to Paris, where he continued his studies at several other academies (Julian and Colarossi). After the count stopped supporting him, he found his first “painting” job, namely in the theater magazine Le Costume au theatre, for which he drew various illustrations and advertisements. In 1890 he already established his own studio and a year later he met the famous Paul Gaugin, who even shared a studio with Mucha for a time. Mucha’s star began to rise from 1894, when he produced a poster for the most famous actress of the time, Sarah Bernhardt. She and Mucha hit it off in terms of work and concluded an exclusive contract with the Czech artist for advertising posters for plays, costume designs and even jewelry or backdrops. The World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 was all about his distinctive “Art nouveau”. His versatile talent also included other artistic fields, from sculpture to photography to theater.

Between 1906 and 1910, Mucha lived across the ocean, in the United States. There he taught the art of painting and created a series of portraits dominated mainly by ladies from higher circles. In 1921, Mucha had a large retrospective exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Mucha’s textbooks
In 1902, Mucha published his book Documents Décoratifs, which was a kind of handbook for draftsmen, painters and craftsmen, and became the main textbook of art nouveau ornament. In 1905 the book Figures Décoratives was published, presenting Mucha’s principles in figure drawing.

Return to the Czech Republic
Mucha returned to Czechoslovakia in 1910 and devoted the rest of his life to creating an epic series of 20 paintings depicting the history of the Slavs, the Slavic Epic. Mucha dreamed of creating these large-format paintings from the mythology and history of the Slavic people all his life. He fulfilled his dream when he created the work at the Zbiroh castle. These are twenty large paintings, ten of which depict Czech legends and early history; ten other canvases are then devoted to all-Slavic themes. He donated the entire work to the city of Prague on September 1, 1928, under the condition that he would set up a new gallery for the paintings (which has not yet happened).

After independent Czechoslovakia was established in 1918, Mucha willingly participated in building the new homeland. From his hand came proposals for new stamps, the shape of new police uniforms and banknotes of the young state. The end of Mucha’s life was marked by the sad period of occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939. The work of Alfons Mucha was a thorn in the side of the Nazis, as they considered the Slavs to be an inferior nation. Mucha was one of the first artists to be arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. Mucha died of a lung infection on July 14, 1939 in Prague. He was buried at Slavín in Vyšehrad.

Source: https://www.kudyznudy.cz/ceska-nej/osobnost/alfons-mucha