Gröbova vila Villa

Gröbova vila, which Prague residents call Gröbovka or Grébovka, stands in Havlíčkovy sady at the border of Vinohrady, Vršovice and Nusle. This two-storey Renaissance revival building stands on a plateau above the Botiče valley. It forms the axis of a garden composition with terraces, staircases, pavilions and water features, which together with the villa evokes the atmosphere of the Italian south.

Since the second half of the thirteenth century, wine had been grown on these sunny slopes, and later two farmsteads, Horní and Dolní Landhauska, were established here. In eighteen seventy, Prague entrepreneur Moritz Gröbe purchased them and had a summer residence built on the site of Horní Landhauska. The terrain was raised with earth from excavations of a nearby railway tunnel, in the construction of which Gröbe participated.

The villa was designed by Antonín Barvitius, the interiors by Josef Schulz, and it was built by František Havel. The inspiration came from Italian Renaissance suburban villas, where nobility and clergy spent their summers. On the north side, the building has a mighty portico with a five-arched pillared passageway and a welcoming terrace. From the southern terrace, a double-flight staircase leads down to the vineyard. Below the low roof runs a fresco band with motifs of children by Viennese painter Kugler. The sculptures were created by Bohuslav Schnirch and Josef Vorlíček. Inside there are thirty large rooms and a marble staircase with a coffered ceiling.

After Gröbe's death in eighteen ninety-one, his heirs leased the property to the Habsburgs from nineteen oh two to nineteen oh five. Princess Alžběta, granddaughter of Emperor František Josef the First, stayed here with her husband. In nineteen oh five, the municipality of Vinohrady purchased the villa, and in May nineteen oh six opened the park as Havlíčkovy sady.

The villa then housed the forestry department of the College of Agriculture, later a dormitory for non-Prague children, and during the war the Hitler Youth. During the bombing on February fourteenth, nineteen forty-five, it was struck by incendiary bombs and fire destroyed the roof and both storeys. The restoration from nineteen fifty-one to nineteen fifty-three took place in the spirit of socialist realism. A hammer and sickle appeared on the ceiling and the original paintings were covered over. The villa served as the Central House of Pioneers and Youth, later among other things as a dance and singing conservatory.

In two thousand one, the CEELI Institute leased the villa, committing to invest almost five million dollars in repairs. The reconstruction according to a project by the Arkom studio under the direction of Hedvika Hronová was to restore the villa to its original appearance and was completed in two thousand five.