One of Prague’s Art Deco landmarks is reborn as the Almanac X Prague, a 204-room hotel steps away from the city’s UNESCO-listed Old Town and the historic Wenceslas Square. The property is the first in the Almanac X lifestyle collection, a youthful, culinary-driven offshoot of the Barcelona-born Almanac Hotels.
Local architecture firm Marani and Barcelona’s Tres Cinco Uno interior design studio led the 14-month, €20 million ($21 million) refurbishment, drawing on the building’s 1930s-era glamour and local art and craftsmanship for a modern, colorful tribute to Czech design. The hotel has an Art Deco-inspired cocktail bar, a specialty coffee shop and a restaurant reinventing classic Czech recipes. Local experiences immerse guests in the cultural and gastronomic flavor of the city while uncovering lesser-known attractions—from architectural marvels and historic beer halls to hip dockside neighborhoods.
Set inside the former Alcron Hotel—Prague’s first luxury hotel, dating to the First Republic and frequented by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Ella Fitzgerald—the Almanac X Prague hotel has original details like marble pillars, wood paneling and the onyx fireplace. The original architect, Alois Krofta, was inspired by the Art Nouveau and Bauhaus movements, as well as the opulence of Gilded Age ocean liners. In 2020, Marani and Tres Cinco Uno Creative Studio began renovating the public spaces and the 178 guestrooms and 26 suites, modernizing the century-old landmark.
The rooms and suites have hardwood floors, wainscot paneling, bathrooms in Czech limestone, and glass pendant lighting in a nod to the Czech glass tradition. Rooms range from 280 to 322 square feet, while the suites span up to 914 square feet and signature suites has views of Prague Castle. Located on the top floor, the one-bedroom Presidential Suite offers views over both the Prague Castle and the National Museum, with a separate living space, dining room and kitchenette.
At the ground-floor Alcron Restaurant, local head-chef Eliška Hromková (formerly of Michelin-starred Kiin Kiin restaurant in Copenhagen) will reinterpret classic Czech cuisine with dishes that use regional produce and elevate underappreciated ingredients like Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke), daikon and leeks. The plant-forward cuisine will be served alongside wine selected by the Alcron sommelier. Guests can grab a coffee at the streetside café, or sip on cocktails at the Alcron Bar. In summer 2024, the hotel will also debut a rooftop terrace—a stylish spot to take in panoramic views of the Prague skyline while mingling with locals.
Separately, a fitness center is open 24 hours a day and equipped with modern equipment and a sauna exclusively for the use of hotel guests.
As the first property in the experiences-led Almanac X portfolio, the hotel offers an exclusive range of bespoke tours and unique excursions specifically for guests of the property. A modern architecture walking tour gives guests an appreciation for the city’s diverse architectural styles—from Renaissance and Baroque to Brutalist—and includes stops at classic landmarks like the Lucerna Passage and the National Theater, as well as the newly revitalized Náplavka river embankment and the deconstructivist icon, the “Dancing House.” Other tours include an excursion to the once-industrial, now-hipster dockside neighborhoods of Holešovice and Karlín; an exploration of the Old Town beyond the main square and other main tourist hubs; and a downhill walking tour of the hilltop Hradčany neighborhood, dominated by the vast Prague Castle complex, and culminating with a private visit to the Strahov Library, the largest monastic library in the country, with two Baroque halls and a collection of 250,000 volumes. Each tour includes "foodie stops" along the way; guests might stop at the Salm Palace restaurant to discover recipes from cookbooks dating the 16th century, swing by a century-old sweetshop to sample a traditional buchtičky se šodó (sweet bun in warm vanilla sauce), or pull up a chair at a historic beer hall to try a pilsner accompanied by a slab of Prague ham.
For more information, visit www.almanachotels.com/praguex.
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