Barrandov Terraces - a First Republic gem with a troubled fate

Prague - It used to be the pinnacle of excursion and party nobility. The brightly white building of the Barrandov Terraces proudly towered above the Vltava River since the late 1920s. On their dance floors with a stunning view, people played, sang, and danced, while below the cliff swimmers jumped into the most modern pool. The dazzling shine of the terraces "beyond Prague yet still in Prague" began to fade in the 1960s, and by the end of the millennium, the entire complex was decaying above the maze of roads of the Barrandov Bridge. A new owner will revive it, but only partially. The Barrandov Terraces were officially opened on October 4, 1929.

During the First Republic, this lavish excursion restaurant was immensely popular, and thousands of Prague citizens ended their Sunday trips here. Occasionally, people climbed a kind of goat path directly from the tram terminus.

The terraces were commissioned by Václav Havel Sr. When visiting San Francisco, he was inspired by a restaurant on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean and wanted to build something similar in Prague.

The father of the future president purchased a rocky wasteland then on the outskirts of Prague in the 1920s and built a villa colony there. He wanted to attach a kind of inn on the Barrandov Rock. He entrusted the project to architect Max Urban. He was to create a complex that could accommodate thousands of people and be operational all year round.

The entire structure was completed in just six months, and the grand opening was attended by 50,000 visitors. The functionalist building attracted attention with its observation tower; inside, there was a French restaurant with glass walls on three sides, a café with a covered terrace, and a complex of other open terraces that naturally followed the undulating edge of the Barrandov Rock.

At the top of the tower, one could sit in another upscale restaurant, and it is said that in the observation tower's staircase, rushing waiters collided with guests. People ran around a lot on the terraces. And on the rock below the terraces, a neon sign reading Barrandov sparkled, a kind of paraphrase of the Hollywood sign.

The furniture and details of the complex shone in the tones of the heraldic colors of Prague - deep yellow and red. The creators aimed to pay homage to Prague and also to breathe life into the building on the rock and draw attention to it, as Václav Havel Sr. describes in his memoirs.

"Outside, there was a square, an orchestra played there, and people danced. There was also the Trilobit bar, open until four o'clock," recalled Jaroslav Bořický, a resident of Braník on the opposite side of the Vltava, of the First Republic operations of the terraces. "I heard lovely music and singing, and how it carried over the water, even with that evening fog, it was incredibly poetic," reminisced another witness, Zdenka Kellerová, for the media.

The atmosphere was captivating. The garden restaurant could accommodate up to 3,000 guests. The orchestra of R. A. Dvorský played on the terraces until seven in the evening and then moved to the Trilobit bar, which was added to the terraces in 1937.

In the 1930s, the Havels also added a swimming pool to the terraces, down in a former quarry, which was connected to the restaurant by a cable car. It was the first fifty-meter pool in the republic, and it was always crowded, even though it had the coldest water in Prague.

People also came to the terraces for afternoon concerts, and among the regular guests were famous actors. The dance floor saw Oldřich Nový, Vlasta Burian, Svatopluk Beneš, and Adina Mandlová spinning around. The atmosphere of the terraces was also favored by President T. G. Masaryk and his son Jan.

Under the motto "Beyond Prague yet still in Prague," the terraces were relatively accessible. A new road led there, and one could arrive by bus, sightseeing coach, steamboat, or tram number five to Hlubočepy and walk through the orchard.

Actors had a short distance from the Barrandov studios, so it is no wonder that the terraces "appear" in films. One can see how lively it was there, for example, in the film "Before Graduation" by Vladislav Vančura from 1932.

The starry fame of the terraces ended in the late 1940s when they were nationalized and neglected. However, they continued to be used by communist dignitaries, and in the 60s, they remained a popular place for Prague's elite. The pool operated until 1966.

Even in the 1980s, the terraces were regularly prepared for the new season, but their luster was fading. In 1982, the Trilobit bar closed, and even the designation of the terraces as a cultural monument in 1988 (the area has been a conservation zone since 1993) did not prevent their decline.

Similarly, the return of the property to the Havel family after the Velvet Revolution did not help. The restaurant last welcomed guests in 1994, after which it was closed, and since then, no one has cared for the complex.

The long-awaited restoration was taken on by the new owner, the joint-stock company Barrandovské terasy, in which Michalis Dzikos holds a majority share. But only to a limited extent: "Unfortunately, an outdoor restaurant cannot be created here today due to extremely high noise levels," stated the architect of the new building, Ladislav Kuba.

Work on restoring the terraces has been ongoing for two years, and the entire complex is expected to open between 2020 and 2021. The undulating shape of the original terraces is reflected in the already standing new apartment building, while a hotel is planned to be on the other side. And the French restaurant is to be restored in its original First Republic style.