General university hospital Na Bojišti - Prague







There are places, that are not in tourist guides, or in general, they are inaccessible. However they are decorated with unique ceramics like the ones in the Imperial Hotel or the Municipal House. One of them hides under the facade of a corner house of the General University Hospital in the quarter Prague 2 – Na Bojišti. In reality, nobody of the people passing by probably knows, that if they took a look through the stained glass windows on the 3rd floor into the room, they would not be able to stop wondering.

In 1914, there was a meditation lounge built as a part of a luxurious sanatorium, where wealthy patients could have relaxed and let their mind by carried away by the mystical atmosphere of this place. The room was tiled with wall tiles with luster and efflorescence glaze, that made every single one of the a unique product. On the floor, there was an ornamental pavement. The room was dominated by a fountain with a relief of a woman above a spring, created by Stanislav and Vojtěch Sucharda. According to the restorer and collegiate sculptor Vojtěch Pařík, the whole space was designed by a famous Prague architect Jan Kotěra, who interconnected the elements of plants and geometrical Art Nouveau there. He combined the colorfulness of the stained glass with the color of the wall tiling and provide the whole lounge with an airy, sunny and light atmosphere, so that it can fulfill its purpose wholly – to be a balm to the soul and a place for meditation. For over a century, the decoration of the lounge had been affected by the ravages of time and the room went through many insensitive interventions. LASSELSBERGER cooperated in renovation of this unique place with the restorer Vojtěch Pařík, who has already specialized in the interiors with the RAKO brand and has created a concept of the renovation. The collegiate architect took part in restoration of wooden elements and the difficult task to create new tiles, which would be ïndistinguishable from the original ones, was given to Václav Vágner. Considering the fact that the original technology and the composition of the glazes were impossible to be kept, the wall tiles were finished right on the spot with the glazes while cold. A lot of new tiles glazed with engobe were also produced made for the basin of the fountain. On the contrary, the floor tiles were only cleaned up, because thank to the original technology, their ornamental decoration was maintained without any significant damage up until now. The wall tiles in the nearby bathroom and on the stairway of the building are also original.

Unfortunately, the newly reconstructed interior of the meditation lounge is not accessible, but it is another bead on the string of the worlds saved unique projects of the RAKO brand, that you can find not only in Prague and in another Czech cities, but abroad as well.



PHOTOGALLERY