Petschek Palace: A grand building with a dark past
With its monumental neo-classicist style and lavish interiors, Prague’s Petschek Palace was one of the most expensive buildings of its time when built in the 1920s. However today most Czechs don’t associate the palace with architecture but rather with its dark history as the headquarters of the Nazi secret police during the Second World War.
The Petschek Palace, known colloquially as “Pečkárna”, has stood near Prague’s main railway station for nearly a century. With its gray, stone-clad facade, the building has an imposing, almost fortress-like look common to many banks built in the early twentieth century.
Yet despite the palace’s grand style, many who pass by it on Political Prisoners’ Street will find the building easy to miss. Somehow, the Petschek Palace does not quite visually stand out among the many historical buildings of Prague’s city centre.
Indeed, most Czechs know the building not so much for its architecture, but rather for its unfortunate history. The palace gets its name from Julius Petschek, a Jewish banker and industrialist whose family was among the wealthiest in Czechoslovakia’s interwar First Republic period. Petschek had the palace built in the 1920s as the headquarters of Bankhaus Petschek & Co., the family bank.
However the building could only fulfil its original purpose for around a decade. As neighbouring Germany, under Nazi rule, became ever more threatening throughout the 1930s, the Petscheks could see the writing on the wall. The family emigrated to Britain in 1938, selling off the palace as well as several other valuable Prague properties in their possession.
After Germany’s occupation of Bohemia and Moravia the following year, the building became the regional headquarters of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Aside from placing its administrative offices there, the Gestapo also used the basement of the palace for detaining and torturing political prisoners.
As a plaque displayed on the palace’s outer wall states, the place became an infamous symbol of Nazi repression in this part of the world. But why did the Gestapo choose to move into the Petschek Palace, instead of any other building? Architecture historian Radomíra Sedláková told Radio Prague International about some of the likely explanations.
“I think one of the reasons had to do with the fact that it was owned by Julius Petschek. Because the Gestapo took over almost all the buildings in Prague that had belonged to anybody from the Petschek family. That included the family’s villas, as well as other buildings that belonged to their relatives and associates. Another factor was the location of the palace near the main railway station, and the nearby park Vrchlického sady, may have also played a role, since there were not many prying eyes around to watch what was going on in the area.”
Thousands of people were held in the palace during the war, including key members of the resistance such as the prime minister Alois Eliáš and WWI hero Josef Mašín. They were subjected to terrible treatment in basement torture cells that had been converted from bank vaults.
After being interrogated many victims were executed or sent to Nazi concentration camps. Today a memorial exhibition located in the Petschek Palace commemorates their ordeal, as does the name of Political Prisoners’ Street.
Its dark history notwithstanding, the Petschek Palace is also interesting in its own right as an architectural piece. As Radomíra Sedláková points out, it is one of the many modern palaces that popped up in Prague in the 1920s – albeit one built in such a way as to appear older.
“The facade and some of the interiors of the palace can mislead people. Many don’t realize that it is a very sophisticated reinforced concrete structure that had all the newest technical features of its time. These included central heating, air conditioning, pneumatic post, garbage chutes and so on. The goal of the Petscheks was to create a building that had cutting-edge amenities while at the same time looking like an old-fashioned palace.”
According to Sedláková, the style of the Petschek Palace fits in with the wider trend in Prague architecture of the interwar period.
“People often say that the 1920s were this peak period of functionalism and modern architecture in this country. But take a look around Prague and you will see that modern styles only made up some 10% of the buildings built at the time. The whole district of Dejvice was built in a traditional style, for example. The first building of the Podolí Waterworks, another important landmark of the time, looks more like a big Renaissance era palace. In other words, traditionalism and the desire to preserve older architectural styles were widespread.”
The author of the Petschek Palace’s design was architect Max Spielmann, who also drew up the plans for several other Prague buildings owned by the Petscheks. Among them were three family villas in the Bubeneč neighborhood. It is interesting to note that one of them is now the residence of the US ambassador to Prague, while another houses the Russian Embassy. The third was previously used by the Chinese Embassy but is now open to the public as the building of the Museum of Literature. Sedláková explains that Spielmann’s cooperation with the Petscheks represented an unlikely career turn.
“It is interesting that, earlier in his career, Spielmann designed these very rationalistic, industrial buildings, before changing his style in the services of the Petscheks. Of course, the role of the architect is not to assert his own will but rather to satisfy his client. Therefore, he built the Petschek Palace in this old-fashioned style, so that not many people in the 1930s would have guessed that it is a new building.”
Out of all the buildings Spielmann designed for the wealthy family, the city centre Petschek Palace was the most expensive. It cost some 150 million crowns, an astronomical price in the 1920s. Indeed, the lavish design of the building is evident from a quick glance into the palace’s entrance hall with its monumental marble pillars. Carved golden door handles were also among the ornamental features intended to persuade clients that the Petschek bank was the right spot to place their fortunes.
Given the large construction cost and grand interiors, it is perhaps surprising that the palace does not seem so noteworthy when viewed from the street. Radomíra Sedláková says that the building’s low profile is part of what makes it impressive and worth seeing, even if only from the outside.
“I think that many people walking by will overlook the palace. That is really praiseworthy, because if we had a Prague filled only with dazzling buildings, we would lose our minds. To make a unique building stand out, you need many buildings around it that you barely notice, and the Petschek Palace is part of that. Nonetheless, if you arrive in Prague by train and walk through what remains of the park Vrchlického sady then it is really worth coming to take a look at the palace, because it is one of the few classicist baroque-style buildings that we have in Czechia.”
Having been taken over by the state after 1945, the Petschek Palace now houses one of the offices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Besides the memorial on the lower floors, the greater part of the palace is inaccessible to the public for most of the year. However, anyone who wants to take a more extensive tour of the building can do so during the Open House Prague festival, which takes place in May each year.
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