Palác Metro, Neo-Renaissance palace in Old Town, Prague.
Palác Metro is a Neo-Renaissance palace in the Old Town with five stories and two basement levels, distinguished by a glass facade with adjustable golden screens. The building contains twenty retail spaces and ten office areas, connected to Na Perštýně Street through an L-shaped passage.
Built in 1870 for Major Friedrich Bender von Soebelkampf to Bedřich Tesař's design as a three-storey commercial and rental building, it kept its core and central sandstone portal. In 1922–1925 K. E. Ort and Stanislav Bechyně added two floors, removed the side portals and pierced an arcade, and in 1928 Filip Trdlica modernised the basement for Václav and Otýlie Kleinhampl's department store.
The building once housed the Metro Cinema and an automatic restaurant that served the neighborhood for decades until 1989. These spaces remain part of the local memory and reflect how people spent their leisure time in this district.
The palace is easily accessible through multiple entrances, and the L-shaped connecting passage helps visitors navigate the interior. The mix of retail and office spaces makes it straightforward to explore depending on your interests.
The palace's name comes from the self-service restaurant Automat Metro, which operated in the building until 1989 and was, after Koruna, the second most famous automat in Prague. After 1989 the mime Boris Hybner moved his theatre Gag into the former cinema space.
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