Letter from Prague Apartment hunting in Holešovice

Prague - Holešovice For the past five or so years, my partner Dinah and I have been living in a great apartment in a 1930s building in the lovely Prague neighbourhood of Holešovice. It’s on the left bank of the Vltava, and the river, after cutting through the Old Town and Malá Strana, makes a curve around this part of Prague. Originally an ethnic German neighbourhood, Holešovice is now one of Prague’s most rapidly developing areas. People who are not familiar with the neighbourhood tend to think it’s too far from the centre, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Getting to Old Town Square, Malá Strana and even to the Czech Radio building only takes about 15 minutes by public transport. It’s got shops and all that – plus it has what I consider the best pub in Prague by far – U svatého Antoníčka, which is just around the corner from us. But our landlord recently told us that he wanted the apartment back, so about a month ago we took a deep breath and plunged into the Prague real estate market looking to buy a similar place, in the same area.

First we saw all those flats that look great in the photos provided, but have been on the market for way too long. A wonderfully looking place, third floor, nice building – but as we stood in the gorgeous living room with a bay window, I realized that the constant noise from one of the area’s busiest roads would sooner or later make me kill myself –or someone else.

Another great looking place with an antique tile stove, seemed large enough, but was miserably dark. Only later, I realized why those nice pictures we saw on the internet had been taken with a flash. A renovated 1920s flat, not far from where we live now, seemed like a great buy. Until we came to check it out and saw that in the process of renovating it, the owner had turned this historic apartment into a generic flat that could be found in any building, including the ugly blocks of flats on the outskirts of the city. We met all kinds of owners, too. One of them was a military man, who served in Iraq, with medals on the walls, trying to sell his huge, 150 m² apartment with a fire place. Some inherited these flats, lived there with their families and their children’s families, and now want to get two or three smaller places further out of town. Some bought the place some time ago, and now want to buy a house outside Prague. Some have places without kitchens, or with kitchens in the bathroom. We even saw a flat with another flat built within, to accommodate both the parents and their son’s family.

Having seen all the dead stock, and having realized that not a single apartment we had seen had as good a layout as the one we’ll soon have to leave, we are now in the process of figuring out who the architect was who designed our building, and looking for other houses he built in the area. And we have made one discovery already – the man who built our current flat also designed the building that became the headquarters of the Gestapo during the war, and now houses the Industry and Trade Ministry.