History

The construction of the restaurant on the Barrandov Terraces was initiated by Václav M. Havel in 1929-1930. It ranks among the most important buildings of functionalist architecture. The author of the project was the famous architect Max Urban (1882-1959), who also designed the nearby film studios and the overall urban design of the Barrandov residential area (1927-1929). Urban was also a cinematographer and film entrepreneur, and his wife Anna Ondráková was a well-known film star. The setting above the city and the meander of the Vltava River was ideal for the project.

The inspiration for the building on the rock massif was the Cliff House restaurant pavilion on a promontory above the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco, which Václav M. Havel once visited. Nautical motifs are evident throughout the building - terraces, ramped staircases, rounded corners, strip windows. The basement of the building consisted of a kitchen with facilities, the ground floor of the main restaurant, a day bar, a large ballroom, preparation rooms, sanitary facilities and a terrace. On the first floor there was another restaurant, a dance hall, a summer disco, sanitary facilities and a balcony. The second to fourth floors were set up above a smaller part of the floor plan in the form of a tower, with offices on the lower two floors and a covered terrace on the top floor.

The Barrandov Terraces were declared a cultural monument in 1988. Their technical condition, however, was far from corresponding to that. During the 1970s, the interior was often insensitively repaired and modified, and after November 1989 it became a centre for discos and a homeless shelter. The consequences were fatal - in October 2001 the Trilobit bar, which had become one of the most popular meeting places for Prague's elite in the 1930s and 1940s, burned down. The surrounding area then became deserted and overgrown with overgrowth and bushes.

The reconstruction of the sightseeing restaurant was entrusted to Ing. arch. Ondřej Kukral, who has participated in a number of rehabilitations of important buildings that have been highly appreciated by the professional public. These include the reconstruction of the listed building Nový zámek in Ratboř by arch. Jan Kotěra (now the Hotel Chateau Kotěra), cooperation on the rehabilitation of the listed Art Nouveau building of the District House by prof. arch. Jan Kotěra (today the District House Hotel) and especially in the reconstruction of the former Cyril and Methodius Credit Union designed by prof. Ing. V. Fischer, situated on the Green Market in the centre of Brno (today the Grandezza Luxury Palace Hotel).