Café Louvre, Prague, Café in Prague, Czech Republic
Café Louvre is a café on the first floor of a building on Národní třída in Prague, with an Art Nouveau interior, a billiard hall, and several separate salons. The long main room is lined with dark wood, brass details, and large windows that look down on the busy street below.
It opened in 1902 on what was then Ferdinand Avenue, and regular visitors included Franz Kafka, Max Brod, Albert Einstein, and later Karel Čapek. After the communist takeover in 1948 the place was nationalised and broken up into offices and shops, then reopened as a small café called Ganys in 1992 and fully restored under the original name in 1995.
The room on the left as you walk in was originally a separate salon for women who came alone or waited while their husbands played billiards. Today the café still holds onto that habit of old Prague: people stay for a long time, read, play chess, or simply watch others come and go.
Enter through the doorway on Národní třída and go up one floor to reach the café; staff will show you to a table and offer a newspaper if you like. Mornings tend to be easier for a seat, while the middle of the day can bring a wait at the entrance.
When the café was taken apart after 1948, the tables and chairs were thrown out of the windows and smashed on the street below. During the 1990s restoration, a visitor brought in a photograph of Franz Kafka playing chess with a friend here, which helped guide the look of the rebuilt interior.
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