The Prague Post
September 7th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague Center Hotel
Prague Real Estate

Home » Archives » Real Estate

Repolishing an old jewel

After four years of renovation, Villa Gröbovka finally opens

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 15th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
The 19th-century Villa Gröbovka is now home to the CEELI Institute, a Czech legal education firm. The four-year renovation project cost $10 million.
enlarge
INFO BOX

CEELI Institute Prague
Havlíčkovy sady 58
Prague 2

When Czech industrialist Maurice Gröbe built his summer villa in the late 1890s, he couldn’t have predicted the international recognition his estate would attract more than a century later.
Despite having struck it rich in the mining and railroad industries, Gröbe and his family enjoyed the villa and its expansive gardens for only a few years. Shortly after Gröbe’s death in 1905, the family sold the estate to the city of Prague. In 1906, the surrounding gardens were opened as Havlíčkovy sady and the villa itself became available for public use.
Known as the Palace of Young Pioneers during communist times, Villa Gröbovka and its gardens fell into disrepair, and the estate’s future seemed uncertain. After the 1989 revolution, the city received proposals to turn it into a casino or disco. Finally, a less glitzy but more viable option arose when CEELI Institute, a Czech legal education firm that has hosted law students from more than 29 countries, offered to lease the villa as its headquarters and restore the historic building in the process.
“The Villa Gröbovka was suffering considerable wear and tear from its previous use as the Palace of Young Pioneers and had been virtually abandoned in the early ’90s,” says Michael Diedring, executive director of CEELI Institute. “There was a clear danger that the building would suffer substantial damage if it was not renovated. Villa Gröbovka is a national treasure and a recognized historic monument.”
Funding the renovation proved, at first, to be a bit of a challenge for the not-for-profit CEELI Institute. To return the villa to its turn-of-the-century splendor, a total of $10 million (204.4 million Kč) was necessary, significantly higher than the initial estimate. This required the Institute and the project’s general contractor, Skanska Czech Republic, to renovate the building in phases over four years. The exhaustive refurbishment project finally wrapped in June.
“Insensitive alterations to the interiors had been made regardless of the high-level protection of historical buildings by the Czech National Heritage Bureau,” says František Mareš, Skanska’s project manager.
First, Skanska cleared the building of “unorganized alterations” and reconstructed its interiors in accordance with the original plans, Mareš explains. All the interior and exterior parts, including the frescoes, gilding, original lamps and chandeliers and ceramic details, were also completely renovated.
Though the project’s logistics seem daunting, it was business as usual for Skanska, which has been involved in the renovation of numerous historical buildings throughout Prague, including the Wallenstein Palace, the Czech Museum of Music, segments of Prague Castle and the Estonian and British embassies.
“[Renovating national, historical and cultural monuments] requires being a fan of our predecessors’ work and having respect for it,” Mareš says. “The renovation fulfilled our philosophy in approaching the work on [these] monuments.”
The results of the project are indeed stunning. Visitors enter the villa through the front door to find themselves in the foyer, which is dominated by an ornate chandelier and a marble staircase. Delicate frescoes line the ceiling, and the walls are lined in gold patterns. Passing through the foyer, visitors can mingle on the villa’s summer terrace, which offers a view of the estate’s vineyards as well as a stunning panorama of the Prague cityscape.
Although none can quite match the foyer’s grandeur, the villa’s other rooms are equally impressive. The ground and lower floors will serve as a residential housing for 34 CEELI participants and include extensive dining and leisure facilities. The upper floors will comprise state-of-the-art administrative space as well as living quarters for visiting faculty.
Additionally, the Landhaus — once part of the original Gröbe estate and located down the hill from the Villa Gröbovka — is currently being renovated into separate flats that will house 10 CEELI participants.
The Villa Gröbovka will also serve as a local community center. In mid-September, the villa will host the Vinobraní, an annual autumn wine festival. In addition, a series of concerts, festivals and other cultural events are planned for the coming months.
Not only has a significant historical landmark been restored, but investors also hope that Gröbe, as an industrialist, would have approved of the city dedicating his former estate to the realm of legal education.
“In a city renowned for its breathtaking cityscape and stunning architecture, Villa Gröbovka stands as one of its jewels,” says Homer Moyer, the founder of the CEELI Institute. “A wonderful building can enable us and empower us. It can inspire us to use it well, to match its grandeur, to achieve for the human neighborhood what it already does for the physical neighborhood.”
Adds Mareš: “Every nation should care about its history, be it culture or architecture. Villa Gröbovka is among the top 10 villas of its kind in Prague, and it is our duty to preserve cultural monuments for future generations, especially in Prague.”

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


Other articles in Real Estate (15/08/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.